Google dumps Firefox Browser Sync

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

One of the extensions that will NOT be graduating with the Firefox class of 2008 will be Google Browser Sync after the company decided to consign it to the internet graveyard. It seems the team responsible for its development has “moved onto other projects” (is that like a politician resigning “to spend more time with his family”?)

It’s a little strange that Google didn’t consider this extension important, especially with all the Google Browser rumors constantly flying about. If a Google browser DID come out, you’d think a synchronization feature would be one of the top features. But along with the news that they are dumping Browser Sync, Google is instead recommending that you use an online bookmarking service such as Foxmarks or Google Bookmarks!!

To go from a remote browser synchronization service to an online bookmarking service is like taking someone’s Porsche away and asking them to take the bus instead (and expecting them to cough up the money for the fare too). How can they possibly compare Browser Sync to Google Bookmarks? The two services are totally different and offer two totally different things.

Browser Sync wasn’t perfect and it had bugs, so much so that Mozilla warned users about using it. But I would have liked Google to have done additional work on it and developed it more for Firefox 3. Now it will go in the “what if?” chapter of internet history.

Instead, we can now focus on Mozilla’s own upcoming version of Browser Sync called Weave.