Personally, I have never used the Google Browser Sync extension (or anything of Google’s) but I know a lot of folks have. Bad news for you folks, Google has decided to ditch the Google Browser Sync extension. This means it is not going to made available for Firefox 3 and at the end of the year when Firefox 3.1 comes out and 2.0 is retired, Google will stop all support for the extension.
Here’s some information via Lifehacker
Thanks for trying out Google Browser Sync and for all of your feedback. It was a tough call, but we decided to phase out support for Browser Sync. Since the team has moved on to other projects that are keeping them busy, we don’t have time to update the extension to work with Firefox 3 or to continue to maintain it.
So are they are any alternatives? There’s Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer, but that only does your bookmarks, not history, cookies, passwords, and tabs between browsers. I am also hearing Weave created by The Mozilla Labs is going to be a good alternative, but it is still in developmental stages at this time.
News Source: CyberNet News
I am concerned about how Google is handling the avalanche of negative response to the “announcement.” There are literally hundreds of users screaming in blogs and groups about the announcement to discontinue Google Browser Sync.
Google haven’t posted anything official in the Google-Firefox-Extensions group, which has received hundreds of complaints about GBS being dropped, so the only “announcement” we have is the “report of the email received” on lifehack.org.
Doubting Google, for a very loyal follower, could be a problem. In the past, Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista had a good share of the market. Each one lost market share when they failed to support users and keep up.
Google has remained on top now because they are good. And they remain good. They keep up. They develop more. Their applications are more innovative. And they are responsive. Responsive? Well. . .
Users are already asking “Will Google do this to another product I rely on?”
I’m asking that question, and I use Gmail, GBookmarks, GHistory, GNotebook, GDocs, GCalendar, Gmobile, GTranslate, GMaps and many more.
Google may well have lost a *lot* of image. Time will tell. So will the actions Google takes with GBS. I still hope they update it. A little work now.
The worth is continued loyalty and faith in Google. The cost of not updating GBS may be doubt and loss of faith in Google in a whole bunch of user’s minds.
If Google bucks up and supports the users while other alternatives are in development it could be a positive move. If they fail to try, they fail not only the users, but the ideals of Google itself.
@Eric, excellent points. I think in someways Google has gotten too big from themselves to handle. They’ve been so busy trying to acquire or partner (such as Yahoo) that they’ve lost focus on what they already have.
I have used GBS to keep myself up to date on four machines I use constantly for quite a while. The problem is that there aren’t any good alternatives to GBS. I’m floored that not only did they stop supporting such a useful & necessary addon (done in the Google tradition of recognizing an obvious need not being addressed by anyone else), but that now I have to think about them as one does Yahoo, Apple et al – formerly nimble companies who “got it” before becoming too cumbersome.
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