Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#101

Post by jtgeibel » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:22 AM UTC

browser wrote: post #95

jtgeibel wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This completely captures my response as well. I run on the beta channel, so the day after 38.0 stable hit, this got rolled out the the beta channel. I checked the plugin/addon page and my user profile directory at least a dozen times, assuming that something unwanted had done this behind my back. I probably wasted half an hour looking into this. Finally, I took a (second) look at the release notes before actually rea…

In my view, they need to reverse course 180 degrees on things like Pocket and Hello, or it will be the beginning of the end for Firefox. Firefox is a niche product that appeals to the privacy-consciuos. Stuff like Pocket and Telefonica/Hello basically eliminates its reason for being. I have Firefox as my main browser now, but I won't keep it around for long if I have to swat down new marketing integrations in every n…

I'm not as concerned with the Hello integration. With both features, I'd like to know more on the technical details.

For Hello, I think Mozilla (but actually unsure who's servers?) is only involved in initial discovery and, if needed, WebRTC NAT traversal. In terms of code bloat, I think Hello is just a bit of extra javascript on top of functionality already built into the web platform.

But I admit I haven't look that much into it. I don't know how or if crypto is used. I haven't used the feature yet either and would want to know more before using it in a corporate or privacy sensitive situation.

I guess the same goes for Pocket, I probably don't need to worry about it if I'm not using it. However, for me personally, it just seems to be such a stark contrast with their position on Sync. On top of that, the browser UI is _mine_! Nobody - not even Mozilla - should be adding something to the primary interface of _my browser_ without a very good reason. And this is where I feel my trust has been betrayed for the first time.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#102

Post by ChrisGranger » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:41 AM UTC

This page http://help.getpocket.com/customer/portal/articles/1999137-h... purports to tell you how to disable Pocket for Firefox, yet all it does is remove the button from the toolbar. Searching "pocket" in about:config reveals numerous preferences that can be edited, including browser.pocket.enabled which remains set to true after following Pocket's instructions.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#103

Post by azakai » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:45 AM UTC

seanp2k2 wrote: post #98

dblohm7 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your beef with Hello, exactly? The whole point of Hello is to offer an alternative to Skype/FaceTime that uses open Web technologies and does not require you to create accounts or upload contacts. How does that not appeal to the privacy-conscious?

Because it wasn't a choice I made to install it, and since it's not something I'll use, it's useless for me. I do use pocket, but I'd much rather use it as an extension vs a special integration with who-knows-what different permissions / sandboxing / control vs an extension.

Both features have near-negligible overhead if you don't use them. But having them in the product makes them accessible to the wide userbase, many of whom don't know what addons are or how to install them.

Therefore it seems reasonable to add them to Firefox.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#104

Post by bhrgunatha » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:48 AM UTC

yarrel wrote: post #3

sp332 wrote: post #2

This bug report is not really clear. Does the submitter consider it bloat, or a privacy violation, or what? It should be obvious that the way it appears in Developer Edition (two releases ahead of "release") is not the way it will appear in the final version. This report should be about the way the feature is explained to the user, or about how hard it is to disable the feature, so that it can be improved.

"Mozilla's recent integration with Pocket, a proprietary third-party service, is a mistake." This seems perfectly clear. The obvious improvement is to remove it. What is wrong with Mozilla at the moment?

> What is wrong with Mozilla at the moment?

I keep asking myself the same question. With so many releases of firefox I seem to have to spend my time searching for a way to remove or disable many of the features they push. I think the problem is this: browsers are quiet mature in terms of features, so now to innovate they need to force features that don't really belong in the browser. Either fix the pitiful state of bookmark management in your browser or let the add-on take the burden.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#105

Post by azakai » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:50 AM UTC

jkaptur wrote: post #16

I really like both Firefox and Pocket, but I can't imagine a good reason for them to be integrated at this level. I searched for what justification has been offered and found [1]. I'd love to read something more informative and convincing. [1] http://www.planet-libre.org/?post_id=18514

I think the reason is to make them available to users. If they were in an addon, most users would never hear about it, and even if they did, many users don't know how to install addons.

There is data showing that Firefox users like the feature and benefit from it. Given that, adding it to the browser makes sense.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#106

Post by gcb0 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:53 AM UTC

why stop there?

- telefonica service for voice chat.

- google scam site checker, phone-home component for every site you visit

- google services (the things responsible for ads no less) just so you can stream videos on android (can't even build firefox without including that SDK)

- adobe binary blob for DRM on netflix. (who even uses netflix on the browser?)

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#107

Post by gcb0 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 12:56 AM UTC

MisterWebz wrote: post #5

It is so unlike Mozilla to introduce something like that, I ran a virus scan and checked what programs had been installed recently -- I assumed it had been put there in the same way that IE users used to get the Ask Toolbar installed. Exactly how I felt. What the hell were they thinking? I'm generally very supportive of Mozilla, I even supported their initiative to put advertisements on Firefox's start page. But bund…

that hits home. because there was a malware that distributed itself as a mozilla add-on. even sent in patches because it affected a bank i used.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#108

Post by GeorgeHahn » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 1:06 AM UTC

What happened to the native Reading List? It was in Nightly for a time, but it appears to have disappeared recently.

I love Pocket, but I was looking forward to migrating to a setup where my data was kept private.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#109

Post by GeorgeHahn » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 1:09 AM UTC

abrowne wrote: post #31

chimeracoder wrote: post #27

Since all of the comments on this page so far seem to be opposed to the integration: I love Firefox's "Reader View". It's the only way that some pages are readable on my desktop or mobile device, because so many websites try to hijack scrolling, insert modal overlays and ads, or do all sorts of things that make it unbelievably frustrating to just read static text . On the other hand, Reader View lacks a sync feature.…

I don't mind using Pocket as the backend, but I want it to work more like Android's Reading List (and the reading list that was available briefly in desktop Nightly). I want articles to • be readable (and savable) offline; • open in Firefox's Reader View, not Pocket's site; • sync with Android Fx's Reading List, not (just) the Android Pocket app.

Do you know what happened to the reading list that existed in Nightly for a while?

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#110

Post by weaksauce » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 1:09 AM UTC

azakai wrote: post #103

seanp2k2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it wasn't a choice I made to install it, and since it's not something I'll use, it's useless for me. I do use pocket, but I'd much rather use it as an extension vs a special integration with who-knows-what different permissions / sandboxing / control vs an extension.

Both features have near-negligible overhead if you don't use them. But having them in the product makes them accessible to the wide userbase, many of whom don't know what addons are or how to install them. Therefore it seems reasonable to add them to Firefox.

I'd much prefer them to improve the memory and performance reporting features over adding some features that goes against their core values. right now I have a firefox that uses tons of ram and slows down to a halt very frequently but there are no decent tools to diagnose what addin/plugin/webpage/bug might be causing trouble. it's very, very frustrating.

edit: I am talking about multiple gigs of memory for firefox and multiple gigs of memory in the kernel task allocated for who knows what. stop firefox and it lowers the kernel memory to a reasonable level and (obviously) removes the memory usage of firefox.