Google Browser Sync To Be Discontinued

Dude With An Afro writes "What could have been a great Google project is now history. For those who never used it, Google Browser Sync was a Firefox extension that synchronized your bookmarks, web history, browser sessions and passwords across multiple computers by temporarily saving them to Google's servers. According to the Google Browser Sync team: 'It was a tough call, but we decided to phase out support for Browser Sync. Since the team has moved on to other projects that are keeping them busy, we don't have time to update the extension to work with Firefox 3 or to continue to maintain it.' For all of those who fell in love with Google's Browser Sync, our only hope now is to resort to poorly maintained 3rd party extensions without Google's blessing." While it was undoubtedly a useful utility, the argument can also be made that it wasn't the most secure extension in the world, what with having your personal data kept on Google's servers and shot around the internet.

This makes me cry...

Browser Sync was so awesome, I'll miss it *slits wrists*

Re:This makes me cry...

I lost my cookies several times (in combination with my laptop running out of power).

Oh, you should really watch what you eat. If you do, not even your laptop running out of power will make you lose your cookies.

Re:This makes me cry...

Mozilla is actually working on an extension called Weave that essentially does everything it sounds like GBS did. At least, I know it syncs bookmarks, history, and cookies, and other things.

Foxmarks is great

I think it's a little mean to refer to Foxmarks as a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension." I've been using it since before Google's browser sync existed, and I never bothered to try out Google's extension because Foxmarks worked perfectly. If you need a replacement, I would recommend checking them out.

Re:Foxmarks is great

Indeed, the Google message actually recommends Foxmarks, if you read the article. It also recommends Mozilla Weave and Google Toolbar as bookmark-syncing alternatives (well, once Google Toolbar gets Firefox 3 compatibility). Mozilla Weave might not even be considered "third party".

That terminating single quote in the summary is awfully easy to miss... (Bad submitter, bad!)

Re:Foxmarks is great

I think it's a little mean to refer to Foxmarks as a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension."

Yeah, that comment reeks of spite and ignorance. It also glosses over the privacy issues that kept many from using Google Browser Sync to begin with, but which aren't an issue with Foxmarks.

And anyway, I'm much more willing to trust Foxmarks to store my private data than I am Google -- unlike Google, Foxmarks is not one of the world's fastest-growing advertising companies; and unlike Google, Foxmarks is founded by Mitch Kapor, one of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Better still, the Foxmarks extension allows you to use your own server for synchronization, if you're so paranoid that you don't even trust your data in the hands of an EFF founder.

If anything can be called a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension" here, it would have to be Google Browser Sync -- which, I suppose, is why it has fallen out of favor.

Re:Foxmarks is great

Indeed, Google Browser Sync is itself a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension" at this point, so I don't know why that distinction was made between GBS and the other plug-ins that do the same thing.

Sync and Sort?

I've been using Bookmarks Sync and Sort [mozilla.org] for quite a while now - all you need is a FTP/WebDAV server on which you have an account, which I guess every slashdotter should have...
The extension does everything I need, and it works like a charm; the only problem is that is not (currently) FF3 compatible.

Third party extensions

For all of those who fell in love with Google's Browser Sync, our only hope now is to resort to poorly maintained 3rd party extensions without Google's blessing.

Um, wasn't Google browser sync also a third party extension?

So why not open source it?

Google should know better. Abandonware? Open source it! Then if people care they can upgrade it for FF3.

-molo

Re:So why not open source it?

How good is your server?

And how do we know we can trust you with our bookmarks?

Re:So why not open source it?

Presumably, one of the first things open source developers would do would be to uncouple the extension from Google's servers. Seems that substituting in as the data store would work pretty well.

Mozilla Weave is working great for me

http://labs.mozilla.com/featured-projects/#weave

Syncs lots of things, including bookmarks.

Mozilla Weave

Mozilla Weave does similar stuff... http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/introducing-weave/ [mozilla.com]

I've been using it for a while and it's pretty good, even though it's still under lots of development.

Re:Mozilla Weave

Most people haven't been able to log in for the past two days, and there's no information on when it'll be fixed.

https://labs.mozilla.com/forum/index.php/topic,832.0.html [mozilla.com]

Alas, reliability is rather important for this kind of service.

Obligatory conspiracy theory

In a manager's office at Google -

Employee: "You know boss, we really should devote some time to updating the Browser Sync tool to work with Firefox 3..."

Manager: "I have been meaning to talk to you about that... You see, we have been thinking about it, and there really isn't a way to make ad revenue from that tool. While it is cool and useful and all, I don't think people would be happy with ad links showing up randomly in their bookmark menus."

Employee: "Um, yeah... I agree with that. I didn't reslize..."

Manager: "The ad revenue thing? Yeah... well something has to pay for that 20% self-directed time since ad revenues are down. The good news is we think that the Google Toolbar can replace it, and we have a plan for monetizing that."

Employee: "Well, can I work on the FF3 upgrade in my 20% self-directed time and open source the tool?"

Manager: "We thought about that too - first, the Google Toolbar doesn't need the competition. Second, we can't release the code in the shape its in... people would throw our 'do no evil' slogan back at us and slashdot would be all a-titter. It would take as much to clean it up as it would just to get it to work with FF3, so we think it is at its end-of-life."

Employee: "um... o..k... thanks."

Strange that there are no good solutions

I've been using browsersync since it came out and it worked reasonably well except for the periodic trashing or losing of my bookmarks. It just seems really strange to me that there is not a good solution in this space as most people user multiple machines between home and work.

Is this because its a hard problem or is it because there is no opportunity to make money from it?

Great... which project is next?

I hate to sound a bit alarmist here, but which project can we expect to see go next?

I'm just that more hesitant to use google products, if they're prone to axing them without warning.

Check out bookmarks on the Google toolbar

Google toolbar has a bookmarks button that is a nice and easy way to make your bookmarks available wherever you browse (even across browsers).

As to the note in the OP about Google having all our personal data on their servers ... I laughed out loud when I read that. S/he is living in some parallel universe if s/he thinks Google doesn't have plenty of information about our browsing history or tendencies. Do you use Gmail? Do you use Google to search? Do you use the Google toolbar? Adding my bookmarks to the mix doesn't seem to make my "personal data" any less secure.

Re:Alternatives?

Look into foxmarks [foxmarks.com] (assuming you use firefox). It works decently well, and it has firefox 3 support. I never switched to Google's thing, because foxmarks seemed better.

Re:I want my own

check foxmarks you can tell it where to ftp your bookmarks to if you don't want to use their servers.

Re:Fear not...

the newly released Opera 9.5 has introduced a sync'ing capability.

Cool! But I looked at your link, and there's no mention of a Firefox extension.

Could you provide a better link for it?

Re:Fear not...

Sure thing!

In Firefox, go to http://link.opera.com/ [opera.com]

Re:Fear not...

I have mod points, but I have to point out here that Opera Sync currently only works with your bookmarks and your speed dial, making it Opera's built-in equivalent of Foxmarks (which I myself have been using happily). It is no Google Browser Sync replacement.

Re:So just go back to the "old school" solution...

At least in FireFox, your bookmarks just exist as a plain ol' HTML file in your profile directory. You don't need any special tools to sync that across multiple machines, you just copy it between machines (or better, use FireFox Portable off a thumbdrive).

But without a syncing mechanism, you have to be meticulous about making sure you always to it. What if you add 20 bookmarks at home and a different 20 at work between copies? You'd have to decide which 20 was more important so that you can overwrite the others.

I'm kind of opposed to native Firefox solutions on general principals, though. That doesn't work so well if you also want to use your bookmarks from IE at the office and Safari on your iPhone (disclaimer: I have neither - work with me here). Sites like del.icio.us are a much better idea, in my opinion, although I don't like the idea of giving up control over your own data.