Google keeps doing cool things and their latest release Google Browser Sync Extension for Firefox is just that, downright cool. What GBSE, which currently only works with Firefox 1.5+, does is “continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.”
Data to be synchronized across multiple computers is stored in your Google Service Account and because synchronization includes potentially sensitive information such as passwords and persistent cookies synchronization is encrypted for transfer between computers using a PIN created during setup. For anyone who routinely uses multiple computers with Firefox the Google Browser Sync Extension is a must have. A comment from an Ars Technica article by Anders Bylund on this new release: “So what’s in it for Google? Of course, you need an active Google account to use the tool, so there could be a few extra signups involved. The more, the merrier, especially as we look at future moves into powering TV ads and the like. And increasing the reach of Firefox could be a shrewd move against Microsoft’s browser market dominance and the accompanying default browser settings issues. But in the big picture, this application shouldn’t really matter too much. Letting Google engineers work on this kind of thing in their 20 percent time doesn’t cost Google anything they haven’t already budgeted for, and it keeps the staff happy. If the occasional user finds some use for these playthings too, the company basically gains some mindshare for free. And in this case, I’m reaping the benefits of some introverted dork’s labor of love. More of that, I say!” So do I.
