Couple of years ago Google released a nifty little Mozilla Firefox add-on known as Google Browser Sync. This little tool had the sole purpose of synchronizing the personal data in between multiple installation of Mozilla Firefox web browser. In other words it synchronized user’s passwords, bookmarks, saved form data and cookies in between multiple PC. This was very convenient for people like me that have more than one PC, a desktop and a laptop, because I would not have to feed all my web passwords, logins and bookmarks to two computers. I especially enjoyed the service while I was testing various Linux distributions, as it only took minutes to sync my Firefox on the laptop with all the personal browser data I have on the desktop - this means that I was using and producing with a number of web based tools that I use daily literally in minutes after I had finished my Linux installation. Unfortunately Google stopped developing the service and apparantly pulled the plug by not updating the add-on for the Firefox. Mozilla however is working on something that might work as a replacement - Mozilla Weave.

The fact that Google seems to have abandoned Google Browser Sync has caused a lot of angry comments and blog posts, and I can fully understand why. Once you have used to the comfort of synchronizing your web browsers, it is very hard to live without it. There are some alternatives to Browser Sync, such as Foxmarks or Opera, but the common problem is that they do not synchronize passwords. And when one is sharing his passwords online, security and reputability issues of the service come into consideration.

Therefore I was delighted to first learn about Mozilla Weave, even though the earlier alpha versions did not work very well. But today my Firefox 3 let me know that Weave has been updated to version 0.2 and now it seems like something I dare to share it with you guys.

Weave does exactly what Browser Sync has been doing for couple of years - it synchronizes your browser’s personal data. Your private information is secured by a login name, password, and encryption passphrase, so the securiy aspects seem pretty solid. Mozilla as an entity also seems like a trustworthy service provider, not likely to grab your

personal information for their own benefit. What makes Weave different from Google Browser Sync is that Mozilla is working on some web based service models on top of it, possibly with some trendy social elements on the side. We have already seen similar services made for mobile phones, such as the Zyb.com (well worth a look too), which was apparently so good that Vodafone bought it.

So in other words, while there may not be Google Browser Sync for Firefox 3 ever availble, the Weave may turn out to be a sufficient replacement. After playing around with the recent v0.2 it seems to work pretty well, at least in my setup, and synchronizes my browsers as expected. The performance however seems to have some room for improvement, but I trust that it will get better in future versions. Certainly a project worth watching closely.

Get Weave: https://services.mozilla.com/