Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#601

Post by Sphax » Fri, May 23, 2025, 8:25 AM UTC

masylum wrote: post #565

I've been building a pocket alternative that also bundles an RSS editor (RIP google reader) and a light blogging platform. The idea is basically to bundle the saving, discovering and sharing content through the same product. I've been using it for a year and it works beautifully. https://fika.bar And you can see my bookmarks/posts here: https://fika.bar/blogs/paoramen

Love this. Great UI and straight to the point. Thank you for sharing.

One thing I'm curious about, is there a way to add a bookmark from a browser on iPhone ? When I'm browsing I often want to save an article in my reading list, right now I'm using Notion with the Share feature. Curious if you had the same need.

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#602

Post by _Algernon_ » Fri, May 23, 2025, 8:29 AM UTC

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #591

snafferty wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems pretty clear to me—many people were using it at one point, but now few are, so it's not worth maintaining.

But why are few people using it? Critical mass of people using app-based walled gardens? Something else?

They took a tool that is fundamentally about separating curation and consumption of content, then added back the same type of for-you algorithm driven social media, engagement maximizing stuff that people wanted to escape. Not exactly surprising that people don't want to use it.

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#603

Post by red_admiral » Fri, May 23, 2025, 8:37 AM UTC

I for one welcome the pocket interface no longer being installed by default. If I want (pocket|AI|news|recommendations|smart .*) in my browser, I'll install it myself, and choose which one I want if there are several options available.

(This is not firefox specific but several browsers in my country have a deal with a news site I don't care for, and on Edge mobile it's the only option in a list of news sources to choose from besides turning the thing off. Think "Fox News" and you're pretty close. Thanks but no thanks for reminding me as an immigrant that there's too many of us.)

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#604

Post by itair » Fri, May 23, 2025, 8:45 AM UTC

trinsic2 wrote: post #597

bayindirh wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have another theory, actually. I'm also a very old user, since the first days of the service, and I don't know how many saves I have it inside (will see when my export arrives). The latest iteration's search was abysmal , and I normally refrain from using strong words. It failed to find exact matches from titles, the words or excerpts I know that exist in the article I'm searching for, and as a result, it became a…

I used to use Rain.drop, not the same a pocket, but similar. I imported the data into Obsidian and I now use that for information I want to save online using the clipper plugin. It's changed my life. If you like customizing the searchability and displaying content from saved pages, is the best IMHO.

Rain.drop is Russian, isn't it?

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#605

Post by 0xEF » Fri, May 23, 2025, 8:45 AM UTC

binkHN wrote: post #508

major505 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla is more occupied this days paying multi milionary bonus to its executives and begging users for money they waste on useless projects. Mozilla must die, so Firefox can live.

> Mozilla must die, so Firefox can live. Ugh. This sounds so horrible, but this is probably the truest statement on this entire page.

What's even more wild is that many users, even on HN, don't seem to pick up on the fact that the alternatives to Firefox are either Chrome or Chrome in different colored trenchcoats. Firefox is like the last bastion of user choice when it comes to deciding how we interact with the Internet, a choice that has been subtly but steadily stripped from us for years.

My question to the FOSS community is why Firefox is not used to build more independent browsers the way Chrome is? While I stand fast on the ground that Google wants to monopolize our web experience, it really seems like the community at large is just...letting it happen. The only strong contender that I've seen built from FF is Iceweasel/cat which works fine for my needs, but is definitely not winning any popularity contests despite actively knocking out those non-free parts of FF.

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#606

Post by crossroadsguy » Fri, May 23, 2025, 9:05 AM UTC

I stopped[0] using RIL and Firefox almost at the same time - when it was "bundled". Kind of never returned. I wish RIL survived w/o getting bundled into Firefox or rather Firefox kept steadfast at browser work.

Later I also realised that for someone like me a RIL is like the IMDb Watchlist - never to be acted upon and just for accumulating even though I save bookmarks as well [1]. Now I add URLs to Reminders app as a TODO, when I have to do it; and I do it rarely but when I do I act on it (sooner).

[0] (Firefox use change: stopped as in from the "only browser anywhere" to maybe once in a week or few times a month usage on desktop").

[1] (Is there a bookmarking tool/app that triggers a Internet Archive save or checks whether it's saved upon "save bookmark" request?)

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#607

Post by daemin » Fri, May 23, 2025, 9:06 AM UTC

ternaryoperator wrote: post #409

sdk16420 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention they charged $45 a year for a service that included backups in their cloud should your save become a dead link. Imagine paying that amount for several years and when you need it they pull the rug. https://web.archive.org/web/20250321050043/https://getpocket...

On that archived page: "A forever home for your collection" Forever just doesn't mean what it used to.

Like when people assume a "lifetime guarantee" is for the lifetime of themselves. More correctly it means for the lifetime of the company or the product support cycle.

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#608

Post by ZeroGravitas » Fri, May 23, 2025, 9:07 AM UTC

I used and liked Pocket.

The main reason I stopped using it was that I found myself less often in offline spaces, which is when I used the reading part to catch up on interesting long articles.

Once planes, trains, countryside, foreign countries etc had good enough and/or cheap enough connectivity it mattered less to have offline reading material.

On the other side, competitors for those offline spots arose like Netflix letting you download episodes.

My dedicated ebook reader, which I had Pocket installed on, suffered similarly neglect. Phones got bigger and better enough.

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#609

Post by fransje26 » Fri, May 23, 2025, 9:12 AM UTC

major505 wrote: post #247

segphault wrote: post #71

I was a user for so long that I was on it before it even rebranded as Pocket. I finally gave up on it last year, mostly due to frustration with the terrible 2023 redesign of the mobile app. When Mozilla made the unfathomable decision to become an internet advertising company, I figured it was just a matter of time before they had to put Pocket out to pasture. A product that's designed to strip ads from content for re…

Mozilla is more occupied this days paying multi milionary bonus to its executives and begging users for money they waste on useless projects. Mozilla must die, so Firefox can live.

> Mozilla must die, so Firefox can live.

The day that happens, the only thing we are left with is Chrome..

Re: Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

#610

Post by bryanrasmussen » Fri, May 23, 2025, 9:17 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #391

mewse-hn wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DoJ is arguing in court that Google should be barred from paying off Mozilla because of Google's search monopoly https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-r...

That's so hilariously backwards. Google should be split into several business units [1], should be forced to give up Chrome [2], and should be forced to invest several billion of its war chest into competitors. That's what the DOJ would do if it still had balls. The fact that there's no money in a product like Firefox is insane . It's absolutely bonkers. There is so much value in it, yet everybody's favorite mega mon…

as I have understood there is also talk of forcing them to sell of Chrome - but

https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/is_chrome_even_a_sellable...