Is AllPeers FireFox's P2P "Killer App"?

Vivek Jishtu writes "Tech Crunch predicts that the AllPeers Firefox extension will massively increase the attractiveness of that already popular browser, drawing more millions away from embattled Internet Explorer. AllPeers is a simple, persistent buddy list in the browser. Initially, interaction with those buddies will be limited to discovering and sharing files."

restrictions for what purpose?

[digitaldc]

In the future, AllPeers will also have folders to allow public sharing (probably with restrictions to control copyright violations)

Why does it need restrictions at all? You can do the same thing with an unrestricted email attachment. Just put in a warning notice about sharing, but don't restrict its functionality.

Re:"Killer" apps

[nurhussein]

So the parade of new apps for Firefox continues. And how long before there are so many "killer" apps available, that Firefox begins to suffer IE bloat? I'm not a P2P fan, so this doesn't appeal to me at all, but it will to a great many people. And so will the next big thing, and the next, ad infinitum, until the complaints begin that Firefox is crawling and unmanageable. If this is such an important functionality, build it right in and make sure its optimized.

Uhm, you do realise you don't need to install it, right? This is optional, non-mandatory stuff. You choose to use it if it appeals to you.

Nothing to see here

[broothal]

The last time [slashdot.org] slashdot covered this the response was "come back when this is more than vapoware." Well, this is still nothing more than a bunch of slides. What has changed since the 28th when the story was last published? (Nothing, it seems)

Re:Yes, it COULD be good

[pebs]

Granted, I've only used a handful of bittorrent clients, but my biggest complaint with most is that they use the majority of my bandwidth, and I can't even get google to load when I have them open, let alone most other sites.

This is more than likely because you are using up all your upstream bandwidth. Limit your upstream to something under your max and you should be fine. You can also limit downstream, but that's less likely to be a problem.

I have 40KB upstream max with my cable service, and I limit it to 25KB and have never had any slowdown problems after doing so. BT never approaches my ~500KB downstream max, so I've never had to limit that. I use Azureus as my client.

Re:"Killer" apps

[fourtyfive]

suffer IE bloat? Firefox already is more bloated then IE. I still use IE, because its simply much faster, yeah, it helps that its preloaded into the OS and such but its just _faster_ than firefox.

Re:You must be a unix user

[Phisbut]

Sadly it seems that at least in the browser sphere you and I are loosing. Feature creep seems to be a way of life for browser developers.

Not really. The whole point of Firefox is to have a very small general-purpose web browser, to which you can add whatever extension you wish.

When AllPeers releases its stuff, *your* Firefox won't instantly become bloated. It's an extension. If you don't want it, don't download/install it, and you won't have it. Firefox is very flexible in that way.

Just because there are more and more extensions available for Firefox doesn't mean it's becoming bloated. It means it's becoming more flexible. As long as you have the option of not installing all of them, I don't see why extensions are a problem.

Browser != desktop

[Dracos]

I can only imagine this was done as an extension because XUL Runner [mozilla.org] isn't finished yet.

I think using the browser as a host for other apps is cool, there will be a bubble in this as there is in so many other internet trends. Right now we're in the "Wow, let's write an extension because we can!" phase (partly because the only practical way to develop with Gecko is as such, see above). When everyone gets over the cool factor of it, the projects that actually enhance (or even relate to, for that matter) the browser experience will be distilled away from what should have been standalone apps in the first place.

As much as some people want to think the OS will become merely a life support system for the browser, it just isn't going to happen; the network is not the right place for some things, and if one program has everything [mozilla.org], it inevitably becomes bloated and slow [microsoft.com].

Sign-up for their beta test here

[fak3r]

Go here and enter your email to be alerted when AllPeers goes live [allpeers.com]. I'm going to try it out, for sharing photos and home videos between friends/family, this sounds cool. Kinda like a .Mac for everyone.

Comment from AllPeers CTO

[plasticmillion]

I can't resist commenting on this, even though I'm forgoing the very tempting opportunity to moderate posts on this thread (by coincidence Slashdot just gave me moderation status).

Yes, it's a bit silly to speculate about whether AllPeers will or won't be the killer app for Firefox when you can't even see it yet. That said, Michael is making an important point, and I'm afraid that a lot of people aren't grokking it because they attach too much baggage to the term "P2P".

We're not making a Kazaa clone. We're giving people the possibility to share files with their friends and family inside Firefox. This *could* be a killer app because it gives people a real motivation to switch their non-technical contacts (especially family) to Firefox so that they can share with them. In other words, we're adding network effects to Firefox.

Does this mean that AllPeers will be the killer app for Firefox? Who knows. But the idea itself isn't patently ridiculous. If you want to make your own judgement, please register for our beta and check it out when it's available. Also, read my blog [allpeers.com] if you want more technical nitty-gritty about what we're up to.

Re:done already

[D1rtyBa5t4rd]

"You can't set up shared folders where you can dump all of your photos and any of your buddies can browse them."

Actually, you can do EXACTLY that with AIM, and you can set it so only certain "buddies" are able to access your files.

"Of course, setting up a folder with all of your commercial music available to all of your buddies would be a copyright violation, so that won't happen..."

OH NOES!11!!!uno Actualy, I have done EXACTLY that. Well, with certain people. I R teh p1rate.

/or an infringer
// if INfringing in an act, could I possibly be simply a fringer?
///maybe make some doilies?