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Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

bugzilla.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#151

Post by pgeorgi »

yellowapple wrote: post #83
cwyers wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Documentation only makes software easier to use if it is read. People don't read it.

By "documentation" I mean actually making the checkboxes better explained in their visible descriptions, or accompanying those descriptions with "a lot of websites rely on this box being checked" or somesuch. By no means am I calling for more things to be buried away in never-read manuals.

And you think people read those descriptions when they follow the latest tutorial (in the syle of http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2710/firefox_disable_the_down...) to make their firefox 25000% faster?

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#153

Post by mcintyre1994 »

gluxon wrote: post #119
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…

The "Mozilla Manifesto and Pocket" email thread in the Firefox Dev mailing list gives some insight from the developers. [1] To paraphrase: it seems they wanted a reading list feature but found it pointless to re-implement an existing solution with many desired features. (Work which was started but appears to have been scrapped.) This rationalized piggy-backing on Pocket. It gives Firefox a reading list for its users…

It would have been cool to have an API for plugins to hook in their "save this url" logic and UI callbacks. That way Mozilla control the core experience and any plugin can implement it like an interface. They could even ship with Pocket installed by default, just as a plugin implementing the same interfaces everyone else can.

I guess the "list URLs" side of things might be an awkward abstraction, although it'd let you merge multiple services which could be cool too. I use IFTTT to move starred pocket items to Evernote, so that'd be one possible use case if Evernote also implemented it.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#154

Post by nekopa »

Manishearth wrote: post #137
zanny wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox Hello is not the integration of a proprietary 3rd party service. My problem with pocket is that I can trust Firefox Sync, because its code is open and if I were to doubt its security, I could audit it, either myself or contribute to an official audit. I can never do that to pocket. Its a black box to me, I have no idea what they are doing with my browsing history, and therefor I can never trust it. Its a huge…

Uh, no, Pocket's client side code is open. The most you need to be worried about is Pocket reading the list of sites saved to your Pocket.

Would Pocket be required to secretly turn over my reading list to law enforcement and not let me know? No warrant canaries on their site. I don't know how well a startup could fight the courts in this matter, as even the 'big boys' don't seem able to.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#155

Post by SwellJoe »

DonGateley wrote: post #149
Siecje wrote: post #92

What is the difference between using Pocket and a bookmark?

Indeed! I've asked this a couple of places and got no answer. If it is functionally equivalent to dragging the address to a bookmark-bar folder called Pocket I become very suspicious of motives.

I was similarly confused, and still kinda am confused. Many people seem to find it valuable beyond bookmarks, but I don't really get it.

What I have been able to glean is that it re-renders the pages you save to your pocket in a more "readable" way, and it looks more like a newspaper or magazine or Medium blog post. Less clutter, more focus on content, at least that's the goal.

I have my doubts about this being valuable enough to make it a standard feature. I did whatever one has to do to opt-in when it showed up in the Developer version...I thought it was a new Mozilla thing, which I'm always willing to check out. I was disappointed, and surprised, that it was not a Mozilla thing. That wasn't made clear, I don't think, in the description of what I was opting into.

I feel a little misled by it, actually, and I don't think it's something I want to use going forward, but I'm not sure how to opt back out. The UI is confusing, to me.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#157

Post by SwellJoe »

I opted-in on the basis that I thought it was a Mozilla thing. I'm always willing to try new Mozilla things because I trust Mozilla completely. Or, at least, I did trust Mozilla completely.

I didn't know I ever had to read the fine print with anything from Mozilla, and it turns out I was wrong.

Which, I think is why so many people feel so strongly about it. At least, it's why I feel uncomfortable with this decision. It was not at all clear to me that Pocket was a third party service; I'd never heard of it, and the text describing what I was opting-in to didn't (that I recall) explicitly state who ran the service or that it was not a Mozilla service.

I don't want to go overboard about this; this isn't like SourceForge shipping malware. And, I don't want to make it seem like Mozilla isn't a provider and organization that I trust. But, this chips away at my trust. I feel misled, and I never thought I would feel that way about something Mozilla would do, which maybe makes it worse.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#158

Post by paulmd »

dblohm7 wrote: post #96
browser wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 doesn't belong within the core browser framework. A browser should not tie to your "internet identity", whether it's an account or a cookie fingerprint. That actually is the business of a service to manage.

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#159

Post by frik »

Manishearth wrote: post #139
Touche wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says right on the page that it doesn't use Servo.

https://github.com/glennw/servo-shell does though

I would like to switch to servo-shell sooner than later. Though there is no Win32/64 build of Servo.

See Servo github issue "Get Servo working on Windows": https://github.com/servo/servo/issues/1908

Re: Firefox Bugzilla: Remove Pocket Integration

#160

Post by kozukumi »

I want to love Firefox like I used too but shit like this keeps putting me off. It is the little things that are annoying me now. Pocket integration without asking. Lack of a decent EN_GB dictionary (and I have to go and hunt for the damn thing myself).

It is just depressing the state of browsers today. Sure they are more standard compliant but they all suck.

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