OStatic

Google Browser Sync Revived and Released as an Open Source Plugin

Google Browser Sync was a reasonably popular Firefox 2.0 add-on from Google Labs. Like Mozilla's Weave (which is still having some early teething pains), Browser Sync was designed for people using Firefox on more than one machine, keeping bookmarks, history, and saved passwords the same on those machines. But you'll notice the past tense: for whatever reason, Google decided not to update Browser Sync for Firefox 3.0, and discontinued the project last month.

Fortunately, there's a happy ending to this story. Google actually listened to community feedback, and has re-released Browser Sync as an open source project with a BSD-style license. The code is extensive - in addition to all the required bits to hook it up to Firefox, you'll find dozens of Javascript files involved. Fortunately, the source is reasonably well-commented, so it's at least clear what's happening where, if not how to move it forward to the current version of Firefox.

One way or another, releasing this code should ultimately satisfy those users who have missed the project - either some enterprising developer will bring things up to scratch for Firefox 3.0, or the best ideas can be melded into Weave or other projects.

But beyond that, it's worth noting what Google has done here. For years, open source advocates have pointed to the availability of source code as protection against an uncertain future; if your open-source vendor goes out of business or drops a project, you can pick up the code where they left off (or hire someone to do so, depending on your software skills). Google has modified this model for Browser Sync: the project started off as proprietary code (the JavaScript in the shipping version was compressed to the point of obfuscation, and the license was closed). This gave Google the chance to decide whether the project was commercially viable. But having decided that it wasn't, they broke with closed-source thinking and released the code into the wild.

In fact, one might speculate as to whether this sort of closed-to-open strategy could become more formalized and popular. Suppose Google knew in advance that this was their plan: they could have escrowed a copy of the source code with some reliable third party, along with a covenant to release on a certain date unless the covenant was revoked. Such a plan might ultimately bring us more open source software, by encouraging innovation with slightly lower risk.

In any case, it's good to see this particular project out in the open, and as a Firefox user I'd love to see someone pick up the ball and run with it.

• firefox
• google

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