Firefox 21 Adds Obscure Social Service Integration

Mozilla has launched the latest iteration of its Firefox browser, adding integration for three more social networks – Cliqz, Mixi and msnNOW, in addition to Facebook Messenger.

Firefox 21 also features an enhanced user interface for Do Not Track, automatic suggestions to improve application startup time, and logs some “health” stats like time to start, total running time and the number of crashes, in order to simplify troubleshooting.

Meanwhile, the Android version has been enhanced with new open source fonts – Charis and Open Sans, to make the text on the Web easier to read on a small screen. It has also received some HTML5 compatibility improvements,

Social fox

Mozilla had introduced social network integration into its popular browser last year, with Facebook in Firefox 17. At the time, the organisation said it would choose which social networks to integrate next based on user feedback. Apparently the users have chosen little-known Cliqz, Mixi and msnNOW to appear in the browser’s sidebar.

The integration is achieved through Mozilla’s Social API, which allows developers to build tools that blend social network feeds right into the browser window. Mozilla says that Social API presents “endless potential for integrating social networks, e-mail, finance, music, cloud possibilities, services, to-do lists, sports, news and other applications into your Firefox experience”.

Cliqz is a “people-powered news aggregator” that can now deliver a curated stream of news right to the sidebar, complete with customisation and sharing tools.

Mixi is one of the largest Japanese social networks with over 20 million members and a focus on “community entertainment”. The new sidebar allows Mixi users to stay in touch with their friends, albeit it is only available in the land of the rising sun.

msnNow is a little-known service from Microsoft that “pulls together trending feeds from Facebook, Twitter, Bing and popular news websites to keep the user aware of what’s happening in the world” – or as the discerning reader would call it, a trash aggregator [in a good way – we enjoyed reading about Rod Stewart’s penis problems].

The Firefox integration means that all of this content is now available on the side of the browser window, with a dropdown menu to select the types of feeds.

All three new services can be activated on their respective homepages. Although a nice touch, this strange selection is unlikely to convince an average browser user to switch from Chrome to Firefox.

At the same time, the Android version of the browser has replaced the three default fonts available in Android with open source alternatives, to enable a more visually appealing and clear reading experience on the Web.  “The difference is subtle, but beautiful,” states the Firefox blog.

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