Mozilla Weave Sync 0.5.0 Released

Mozilla does have a habit of releasing new versions of some of its projects at a lightning fast pace. This can't be expected for its main products, like Firefox, but for its more experimental projects, from the Mozilla Labs, new versions can come as fast as within a week. And now, almost a month to the day, Mozilla Weave Sync 0.5.0 is released, bringing mostly improvements to the underlying technology but also some new features.

The Firefox add-on isn't exactly a new product but it isn't that well known either. However, it is one of the most important projects at Mozilla, in the long term, as it could potentially change the way we use browsers, and any type of software for that matter, in a pretty significant way by moving the settings and customizations to the cloud to provide a unified experience across several devices and platforms. As of now though, it is just a prototype project aimed at building the technology and infrastructure necessary for any larger scopes that may come in the future.

“Weave Sync lets you securely take your Firefox experience with you to all your Firefox browsers — including our mobile browser, codenamed Fennec. It currently supports continuous synchronization of your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs,“ is how Mozilla describes the product.

The previous version, 0.4.0, brought some significant improvements, like better support for Mozilla's mobile browser Fennec and “Identity support” to streamline the login process for different services. Changes in Weave 0.5.0 are more under the hood, with major improvements in speed during download and upload and better error handling and reporting. To optimize bandwidth usage, Sync is now engaged only when you aren't actively using the browser.

There is also support for changing passwords or passphrases as well as better support for bookmark tags and smart folders. Browser support has been extended to Fennec for Windows Mobile and Firefox running on OpenSolaris.


Mozilla Weave Sync 0.5.0 for Firefox 3.5 is available for download here.