Weave your Firefox 3 data across multiple machines
Now that Google Browser Sync has gone bye-bye for Firefox 3, the search for alternatives is on. Foxmarks has been nominated by many of you, and for good reason, but let’s not rule out Mozilla’s own offering in the works: Weave.
Weave is still in a prototype state at version 0.1.30, but version 0.2 should be right around the corner. Actually, it was expected early this week, but we won’t quibble over a few days. Like Google Browser Sync, Weave is a server-based system to keep your browser settings in sync. You’ll need to set up a free Weave account and install the add-on to Firefox 3 to get started. After that, you can pick and choose what browser data you want synced through the cloud:
- Bookmarks
- History
- Cookies
- Saved Passwords / Saved Form Data
- Tabs
- Extensions / Themes
- Search Plugins
- Microformats
For most, the service is probably a little hit-or-miss at this stage, but this is worth watching. Especially for Firefox users with multiple devices.
(via Make Use Of)
I’ve tried to use Weave 0.1.30 to sync Firefox 3 between my desktop & laptop, but its eating 100% CPU time and slowing Firefox to a crawl on the laptop.
I’m waiting for Weave 0.2, hoping that it will fix this issue.
Rick, I’ve only just installed it and done the initial sync. Since I’m living in the browser, I don’t want it crawling due to Weave either. I did notice that it’s auto-configured by default to connect and sync every time Firefox starts. I may turn that option off to avoid the situation you describe. Since I’m on the UMPC most of the time, I can’t afford to peg the CPU all day.
I just installed it on the Mac and the Win laptops and I don’t see a CPU hit. If it only updates at startup (and I assume shut down) I don’t see why it even uses the CPU in between.
Pretty cool, I was looking for an extension in order to synchronize my other extensions since a while. I am a foxmarks user too, I think I will migrate
- Google Sync is actually “bye-bye” altogether, not just for Firefox 3
- According to Mozilla, the Weave service will be in transition until the .2 release, so it may not work properly until then.
Google Browser Sync isn’t quite “bye-bye altogether”. It will be supported on Firefox 2 until the end of 2008 and has gone open source. It could end up being served by someone later.
Weave .2 was due out on 6/20 and as we said above, it’s still in a “prototype state”. Seems to be working pretty well for me so far though.
Sure, not altogether, the code is available, although the xpi download from Mozilla is not. Yes, Mozilla makes it quite clear that Weave is only a prototype. I was referring to a specific transition period stated by Mozilla, sorry I didn’t post the link…
http://labs.mozilla.com/
I tested Weave .13 before I read the post about the server transition, and found a series of problems in the process, so am waiting for .2.
Glad it is working for you though! Amazing that developers can’t close these gaps of service. I guess ya get what ya pay for.
Your article says that this tool will synchronize saved passwords? Isn’t that something of a security risk? Where exactly it all this synchronized information stored? I haven’t looked into this program, but I would be very nervous about submitting this sort of personal information to some third party server!
Ah don’t worry, it’s encrypted, and you’ll be dead in 100 years anyway….
Kevin,
I enabled syncing of all data types under the options. I.e. History, Cookies, Bookmarks, etc.
I read that one of the bugs fixed in 0.2 is sync performance problems when syncing History data, so I’ve just decided to wait for 0.2 to come out, but the release date keeps dragging out…
I have a serious question for a change:
I use Firefox on 3 different machines and my bookmarks are a mess, to say the least. If I use this syncing software will it weed out all the duplicates or will it give all machines multiple instances of the same bookmarks?
And why did I think there was an ‘h’ in syncing?
John, it *should* merge and not duplicate. Bear in mind that it’s still under construction though.