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chachazz
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

chachazz

Premium Member

Firefox Introduces New Social Messenger-Chat in v17

The Mozilla Blog - Firefox Introduces New Social API and Previews Integration with Facebook
November 20, 2012 - via Planet Projects
quote:
Firefox releases a new Social API and a preview of the first social integration with Facebook Messenger for Firefox.

Much like the OpenSearch standard, Mozilla’s new Social API lets social services integrate into Firefox in a compelling way and makes it easier to use the Web the way you want. The Social API includes features like a social sidebar, toolbar notification buttons and the ability to easily chat with your friends no matter where you are on the Web.

As services integrate with Firefox via the Social API sidebar, it will be easy for you to keep up with friends and family without having to switch between or open new tabs. You can stay connected to your favorite social site even while you are surfing the Web, watching a video or playing a game.

We are excited to offer a preview of our first social integration with Facebook Messenger for Firefox. To test it out, just upgrade to the latest Firefox and then visit the Facebook Messenger for Firefox page page and click “Turn On.”

Once you enable the feature, you’ll get a social sidebar with your Facebook chat and updates, like new comments and photo tags. You’ll also get notifications for messages, friend requests and more that you can respond to right from your Firefox toolbar.

Today’s Social API is just the beginning of making Firefox more social. We’ll soon add support for more features and multiple providers. We’ll also be listening to feedback from our early users to understand how Firefox can do more to keep them connected to their social lives online.


Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

Cartel

Premium Member

I hate facebook.

What vulnerabilities will this introduce?

I just switched to FF to try and get away from these types of facebook and twitter integration schemes.


dandelion
MVM
join:2003-04-29
Germantown, TN

dandelion

MVM

Hopefully it is just something to opt into and won't affect any firefox otherwise. I actually would like just a plain chat like msn since they are dropping their messenger but definitely don't want that "social" integration.

MarkRH
Premium Member
join:2005-02-08
Edmond, OK

MarkRH

Premium Member

Well, you can always check about:config and filter on "social" and make sure social.active and social.enabled are set to false which it looks like are their default values. So, it does appear to be an opt-in feature at the moment.

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·Frontier FiberOp..

2 recommendations

Racerbob to chachazz

Premium Member

to chachazz
Thanks for the info on this chachazz. Facebook is my main communications tool. No hate here.

There is an excellent extension that I use called Social Fixer that makes Facebook a very enjoyable tool to use. You can enable and disable certain features and modify the page. My Facebook page is very clean. I only allow certain features to be shown.

»socialfixer.com/

Also, as a Facebook user, one has to be proactive and go in their settings there and lock down the privacy settings properly. Once this is done, Facebook runs fine. I am unsure if I will enable this new feature in Firefox 17 or not.
EdmundGerber
join:2010-01-04

1 recommendation

EdmundGerber to chachazz

Member

to chachazz
More and more bloat. Thankfully at least, this comes disabled (for now).

Couldn't this functionality be achieved through an extension? Why does it need to be hard-coded into the browser?

Hazeleyze
join:2003-05-09
Wauseon, OH

Hazeleyze

Member

said by EdmundGerber:

More and more bloat. Thankfully at least, this comes disabled (for now).

Couldn't this functionality be achieved through an extension? Why does it need to be hard-coded into the browser?

My thoughts exactly. Firefox was the best as a basic browser. It was so configurable to each person's liking and if you wanted extra, you could install an extension.

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY

Racerbob

Premium Member

I fail to see the problem. You can either choose to enable the feature , or not.

Santa Fe
BUT.....I Digress!

join:2000-08-22
Freight Yard

Santa Fe

I'd choose the Or Not. What an adventure I had being foolish enough to go to that Facebook Messenger for Firefox page & click on the Turn On button. Watch as you get a side bar that takes over a third of the right side of the screen. See as there's no way to shrink it. Be amazed to find out there's no Turn Off button that I could find anywhere.

Oh, and imagine my JOY & RAPTURE to find out somehow all my preferences & cookies & stored passwords went Gone With The Wind.

Forgot how I finally DID get it shut off, but afterwards, I DID go into about:config & falsed each & every thing that had Social in it. Thank Goodness for FEBE, I had just completed a FEBE backup before Santa Fe's big Adventure, so was able to get everything back to normal.

Just wondering if it's not happy with Linux Firefox, or what, but I'm gonna leave it alone.

chachazz
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

chachazz to Racerbob

Premium Member

to Racerbob
 
said by Racerbob:

I fail to see the problem. You can either choose to enable the feature , or not.

Exactly!

It's just this easy. Turn it on, it's enabled in about:config and available; Turn it off (click on the "f" icon), it's disabled in about:config and gone.
chachazz

chachazz

Premium Member

Lots more info here .. Being social with privacy in mind

Trooper
Premium Member
join:2005-05-18
USA

Trooper

Premium Member

Very cheesy and sneaky that they added this into the browser. No need for it.

siljaline
I'm lovin' that double wide
Premium Member
join:2002-10-12
Montreal, QC

siljaline

Premium Member

said by Trooper:

Very cheesy and sneaky that they added this into the browser. No need for it.

+ 1

Santa Fe
BUT.....I Digress!

join:2000-08-22
Freight Yard

Santa Fe to chachazz

to chachazz
Durn it, I kept clicking on the Facebook icon. Need glasses (reading or shot I'm not particular). I just did it through about:config.

Cartel
Intel inside Your sensitive data outside
Premium Member
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC

1 edit

Cartel to Santa Fe

Premium Member

to Santa Fe
Click for full size
said by Santa Fe:

I'd choose the Or Not. What an adventure I had being foolish enough to go to that Facebook Messenger for Firefox page & click on the Turn On button. Watch as you get a side bar that takes over a third of the right side of the screen. See as there's no way to shrink it. Be amazed to find out there's no Turn Off button that I could find anywhere.

Oh, and imagine my JOY & RAPTURE to find out somehow all my preferences & cookies & stored passwords went Gone With The Wind.

Forgot how I finally DID get it shut off, but afterwards, I DID go into about:config & falsed each & every thing that had Social in it. Thank Goodness for FEBE, I had just completed a FEBE backup before Santa Fe's big Adventure, so was able to get everything back to normal.

Just wondering if it's not happy with Linux Firefox, or what, but I'm gonna leave it alone.

Even though I have no facebook and have it completely blocked in my hosts file, I took your advice and got rid of the social stuff in about:config

plus a new add
127.0.0.1 socialfixer.com

hortnut
Huh?
join:2005-09-25
PDX Metro

1 recommendation

hortnut to Racerbob

Member

to Racerbob
+1 to this. Can also read more on the Developer's Blog
--»socialfixer.com/blog/

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·Frontier FiberOp..

1 recommendation

Racerbob to chachazz

Premium Member

to chachazz
Wow. I never knew that Facebook and social networking was so evil !

hortnut, I have been using Social Fixer for a long time. I and many other folks would be lost without it. Matt tries hard to keep up with all of the changes. I prefer a Facebook without clutter and ads , so my page has most of the different features and categories removed. SFX and Adblock Plus are probably my most important add ons in Firefox.

La Luna
Fly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris
Premium Member
join:2001-07-12
New Port Richey, FL

1 recommendation

La Luna to chachazz

Premium Member

to chachazz
If you don't have a FB account because you hate FB, this doesn't affect you. If you do have a FB account, you have to purposely enable this while logged into FB. Not sure what the big hulabaloo is about.

I use FB but have not enabled this, so nothing has changed. I'd find it too distracting to have constant updates in my face, I'd rather just have FB open in a tab or go and login when I feel like it.

Again, if you don't use FB (or don't enable it), this does not affect you in any way.

dcurrey
Premium Member
join:2004-06-29
Mason, OH

dcurrey to EdmundGerber

Premium Member

to EdmundGerber
said by EdmundGerber:

More and more bloat. Thankfully at least, this comes disabled (for now).

Couldn't this functionality be achieved through an extension? Why does it need to be hard-coded into the browser?

Why on earth can't this just be an add on? Just more bloatware to slow down firefox down, cause instabilities and god knows what else. How long before hack manages to turn it back on and puff all your facebook crap is exposed to the world.

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·Frontier FiberOp..

1 recommendation

Racerbob

Premium Member

Please explain to me how on Earth this slows Firefox down ? How does it cause instabilities ? Does this mean that you have little faith in those fine folks who are on the Firefox team ?

You have to turn this feature on to start with. Then, I assume, because I do not plan on trying this, you have to log into your Facebook account at some point. I do not see this as a security threat. I am also not concerned about my Facebook info because #1.) I have no important personal information there. and #2.) I have taken the time to lock down my account very tight in the privacy settings. I cannot even be tagged in any post until I approve it.

@La Luna ? Like ! ^ LOL

chrisretusn
Retired
Premium Member
join:2007-08-13
Philippines

chrisretusn to chachazz

Premium Member

to chachazz
I have a Facebook account but I have zero use for this feature. This is for those who stay logged in to Facebook all the time.

Me... I log in, do my thing and log out, normal session is less that 5 minutes. I don't chat, it's turned off. I don't need instant notification. I get notifications by email, I only check that maybe once a day. I don't even log in every day, sometimes not even once a week.

Sure I can't leave it off, but this should be an add-on, not a feature. There are a lot of things going in to Firefox that should be add-ons.

That said I'm not looking for a replacement, I like Firefox and will continue to use it. I just wish they would quite adding non-browser features.

dcurrey
Premium Member
join:2004-06-29
Mason, OH

dcurrey to Racerbob

Premium Member

to Racerbob
said by Racerbob:

Please explain to me how on Earth this slows Firefox down ? How does it cause instabilities ? Does this mean that you have little faith in those fine folks who are on the Firefox team ?

Well gee more code slows it down and can introduce more bugs plan and simple. This is pure bloatware nothing more. What is next stunt having avg antivirus being included in code like waterfox did. It was opt in also.

Yep, starting to have little faith in those folks that felt it was necessary to incorporate this into the base code. Wonder if FB gave them some kind of donation to do this.

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·Frontier FiberOp..

Racerbob

Premium Member

We shall agree to disagree. I respect your opinions. This version of FF seems to run just as fast for me as the previous one. If the Facebook people donated to Mozilla, then so be it. If it helps their organization to continue R&D on their projects and to keep up wit the times so to speak in the internet world , then I am all for it.

I do play with Chrome a little. I would use it more if the Chrome people were not so stubborn about adding a bookmark side panel that I could keep open all the time like I do in FF.

So all this means is that we all have our likes and dislikes and preferences.

Have any of you folks here written to Mozilla yet this week to voice your objections or opinions as you have here ? Is there anyone directly associated with the Mozilla team that reads these posts or is a member here ?

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to chachazz

Premium Member

to chachazz
It's the ubiquity of FB that's annoying. You can log into almost everything now with a FB password.

Employers are demanding FB passwords at times, schools demanding kids FB passwords. Articles posted about how non-FB users are "terrorists" since they don't belong to the norm. I don't care for this attitude. Whether you use FB or not is your decision - not some idiot worried about social norms.

If Mozilla is smart, they will allow a custom install of all the extra stuff that some don't want without having to tweak the config. And stick with that policy of not installing or enabling on update without letting users know.

Mozilla also has to be upfront about what is being added with each version or update, not just update.