Firefox junk
Firefox is becoming what once was Netscape: a huge, slow, do-everything-do-nothing monster. Not in a direct way however, but through the subtle seduction of “extensions”. Extensions like… a VoIP extension! Why would I need to pass through Firefox to call my mom is beyond me.
The developer of this extension is Abbeynet, a European VoIP provider. Maybe they are just trying to get more presence and/or saturate the market with useless products. I’d be curious to read the use cases they wrote when they designed the software.
What saddens me is that users actually like this garbage (as del.icio.us reports).
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Now a web browser is becoming one of the most used application of everyone’s “online” life. Everyone will agree.
Think of all the new web 2.0 services and applications (Gmail, Flickr, MySpace etc.). You can use them from your browser and many of them provide you with an extension to be smoothly used from inside Firefox. The reason of that is to motivate you to use them frequently, without needing to use the bookmarks (for instance) and improving your overall experience.
The reason of the Firefox VoIP extension is exactly the same.
Firefox and Thunderbird VoIP extension are a part of the VOW platform, a new VoIP platform completely web based which let you create new VoIP-based applications and services on the Web very quickly and easily. Those extension can be customized to be used with third party VoIP softwares, re-branded, and integrated with them to improve them.
In general, the main vision is: everything is moving to the web, your “online” life is moving to the web. VoIP can add a great value to this migration so I kindly encourage every initiative which can help this. Firefox and Thunderbird VoIP go to that direction.
Comment by luca — @ 20060622 0130 Thursday
The great web2.0 applications (flickr, del.icio.us, reddit, etc. – and god, MySpace is hardly web2.0) are all deeply related to things you do best inside a browser. Voice is a service that is not “browsable” per se: it’s a cool service that could be integrated into the web as suggested by Abbeyphone’s VOW platform overview (which is interesting stuff), or in different mash-ups.
However, this service should not come from the browser itself, it should come from the web: it’s a web-service, not a client service. This is exactly like using Gmail on the web vs. using the ugly Netscape Communicator, with integrated browser, email client and newsgroup reader. The extra baggage inevitably makes the program slower, heavier, more confusing, more prone to crashes. IMO it’s not worth it. I am not a fan of Flickr, Gmail, Yahoo extensions either.
I agree with you when you say that companies wants you to use their stuff more frequently. Too often companies (including the web2.0) just want to get more users, or give the press something new to talk about. This is not necessarily good for the user.
Comment by ep — @ 20060622 1951 Thursday