Firefox Send has already been knocked offline

Sep 22, 2020 15:26 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla has decided to kill off two Firefox services as the company keeps rethinking its product portfolio to only stick with what makes sense in the long term.

Firefox Send and Firefox Notes are both getting the ax, and Mozilla says this decision would allow the organization to focus on other new products, including Mozilla VPN, Firefox Monitor, and Firefox Private Network.

First of all, Firefox Send. Launch without too much buzz a few years ago, Firefox Send allowed users to share files online right from the browser, and those with a Firefox account benefitted from extra capabilities, including support for larger files and management options.

But as with every good thing out there, some people just found a malicious purpose for the whole thing, and Mozilla explains that way too many people turned to Firefox Send to spread malware and point people to malicious files.

“Firefox Send was a promising tool for encrypted file sharing. Send garnered good reach, a loyal audience, and real signs of value throughout its life.  Unfortunately, some abusive users were beginning to use Send to ship malware and conduct spear phishing attacks,” the company says.

Firefox Send was pulled earlier this year all of a sudden, and Mozilla was originally expected to bring it back online at some point in the future. But now the organization explains that it no longer makes sense to relaunch Send, as it just wants to focus all of its efforts elsewhere.

“In the intervening period, as we weighed the cost of our overall portfolio and strategic focus, we made the decision not to relaunch the service. Because the service is already offline, no major changes in status are expected,” Mozilla says.

And then, it’s Firefox Notes, the feature that many people found pretty useful because they could just save notes while browsing the web. While there are other browsers offering similar functionality out there, Firefox Notes obviously came in very handy to Firefox users.

But now Mozilla explains that it’s killing this one too, and the feature will go dark not only on the desktop but also on Android. The browser extension won’t be removed from devices where it’s already running, but on the other hand, those who’ll want to get it after November will no longer be able to do so. Syncing notes will no longer be supported either.

“Firefox Notes was initially developed to experiment with new methods of encrypted data syncing. Having served that purpose, we kept the product as a little utility tool For Firefox and Android users. In early November, we will decommission the Android Notes app and syncing service. The Firefox Notes desktop browser extension will remain available for existing installs and we will include an option to export all notes, however it will no longer be maintained by Mozilla and will no longer be installable,” Mozilla explains.

From a business perspective, these announcements obviously make sense, as switching the focus to products that bring home the bacon is the right approach in the long term for Mozilla. On the other hand, it’s very clear that users can’t be pleased with some of their favorite Firefox services going away, especially because Mozilla itself seems to be focusing more and more on paid products in an attempt to increase its revenue.

Firefox continues to be the company’s flagship product, but the browser also struggles in a world full of Chromium rivals. Earlier this year, Firefox dropped to the third place in terms of market share, after Microsoft’s new Chromium-powered Edge recorded a massive increase shortly after the launch.