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Mozilla Labs To Bring Address Book To Firefox

Posted by timothy on from the are-belong-to-us dept.

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "Mozilla has announced the availability of an experimental new add-on for Firefox that is designed to import information about the user's contacts from a variety of Web services and other sources. The add-on makes contact details easily accessible to the user and can also selectively supply it to remote Web applications. ... After the add-on has imported and indexed the user's contact data, it becomes available to the user through an integrated contact management tool that functions like an address book. One of Mozilla's first experiments is an autocompletion feature that allows users to select a contact when they are typing an e-mail address into a Web form. ... To make the browser's contact database accessible to Web applications, the add-on uses the W3C Contacts API specification."

17 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Danger... keep that door locked. by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a reason why we don't keep address books in openly-readable unencrypted XML files.

    Mix an easily-read address book with a small bit of untrusted code, and you've got a worm with the capability of sending victim-specific e-mail. Upload that list to a server, and you've just given your favorite people the gift of spam. Microsoft learned this the hard way when most users were using Outlook Express and Windows Address Book and both of them had wide-open for scripting interfaces, so that lead to a mess. We don't use those things anymore.

    Please... let's make sure this requires a stored-password check so that we're sure only apps the user trusts to read the address book. All of the cool web apps are doing it.

    1. Re:Danger... keep that door locked. by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...And how often does the average person do that? For me and most people the answer is... never. If I want to share a link, I copy and paste the address into where I want to share it. It takes, what, 2 seconds more? With all the privacy issues (after all the browser is the number one attack point of the average system) I'm not seeing the benefit.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:Danger... keep that door locked. by Thinboy00 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As evidenced by Facebook, Joe Sixpack doesn't give a damn about privacy.

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      $ make available
    3. Re:Danger... keep that door locked. by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Interesting

      File->Send link

      Opens your mail client, badda-bing. This is just more mozilla Kitchen-Sinking.

  2. Great, another address book to get F*$ked up sync by rimcrazy · · Score: 3, Funny

    You know that is all I need... yet another address book that screws up all my contact lists when it does a sync with the 17 other address books I have......

    --
    "TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
  3. Yet another hole in my head! by voodoo+cheesecake · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do you get a free purple pony on facebook too..... along with exclusive offers.....and a new credit report too?

  4. Um, why? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First of all, when I'm filling out a web form I'm *never* putting somebody else's information into it -- it's always my own. Second of all... actually, there is no second of all. When I'm using Firefox for email, it's just my front-end to GMail or other webmail which already has an address book. I'm not a big fan of the "well, I don't see a need therefore nobody should" school of thought; so I'd love to hear about use cases where this functionality is actually meeting some need not already handled more appropriately elsewhere.

    1. Re:Um, why? by Thinboy00 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A lot of "social networking" websites ask for your password to your email so they can import your contacts. If the browser could (semi-)automagically give it that info, you'd close a huge security gap...

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      $ make available
    2. Re:Um, why? by ucblockhead · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Given that I always say NO GODDAMNIT NO NO NO NO! to those requests because I don't want some idiot social networking fuckhead marketer spamming all my contacts, saying "we'll just do it automagically" fills me with terror.

      --
      The cake is a pie
  5. Seamonkey by mister_playboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems you would be using Seamonkey instead of FIrefox if this sort of all-in-one approach was appealing to you. I don't see the point.

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    1. Re:Seamonkey by Zarel · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mozilla has announced the availability of an experimental new add-on

      Emphasis on "add-on". That's the whole point of Firefox - it's not an all-in-one approach, and users who don't want it simply won't install it.

      --
      Want a high quality FOSS RTS game? Try Warzone 2100!
  6. History repeats itself by ucblockhead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why on Earth are they trying to turn Firefox into the Mozilla Application Suite!? There's a reason that failed, and Firefox, originally just an afterthought to quiet those complaining about Mozilla's bloat, won out.

    What is wrong with "do one thing and do it well?"

    In any case, I look forward to the next project, which spins off a browser from the Firefox project for people who just want a browser.

    --
    The cake is a pie
    1. Re:History repeats itself by hkmwbz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Seriously, did you not notice the fact that this is not only an optional extension, but it is also experimental? You know, like Ubiquity.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    2. Re:History repeats itself by maxume · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, Phoenix was mostly about cleaning up the XPFE mess:

      http://home.kairo.at/blog/2007-05/old_xpfe_may_die_soon

      They also thought that a user focused browser would be a more successful product than a developer driven internet application suite. And then we found out they were right. It certainly wasn't an afterthought to the people doing it.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  7. Re:Great, another address book to get F*$ked up sy by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    'Sync'ing is the wrong solution for calendars, email and contacts. The right solution is to read all sources and present them simultaneously.

  8. Re:We already have Thunderbird why this? by TheReal_sabret00the · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't use Thunderbird, I use Yahoo and Gmail. And while I don't generally trust websites with my contacts book, I am more than happy to let them search my Twitter to see if I have friends on the site, this experiment is simply an extension/road to that.

  9. Forget an Address Book in Firefox by rshol · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's stupid. But, give us an address book in Thunderbird that will sync seamlessly with Gmail and I'd be deliriously happy.