Google+ Circles - Thunderbird didn't want to implement it in 2009

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=524354

by vkalladath • 15 years ago

54 21 15 years ago

bugzilla.mozilla.org

My friend just sent me a feature request he made for Thunderbird which sounds similar to Google+ Circles idea.

zacharypinter• 15 years ago

As is often reiterated on Hacker News:

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is everything.

mtkd• 15 years ago

Patenting is everything. Until that is fixed - innovation is a tarpit.

lhnn• 15 years ago

As someone who hasn't tried Google+:

Is it implemented as a UI of Gmail, or is it its own site?

scarmig• 15 years ago

Own site. Vaguely similar to Facebook, but less "formish" and more interactive. Black bar at top.

golgo13• 15 years ago

I now have the black bar at the top, too. But I am not using Google+. I wonder if the black bar is getting rolled out to everyone.

lallysingh• 15 years ago

The title's a little suggestive. It was an 'enhancement' bug request, and the response was that it should be implemented as an extension. Then it was marked WONTFIX. The assignee thought it sounded cool.

rcthompson• 15 years ago

Yeah, the bug report wasn't closed because they didn't want the feature, it was closed because they decided it made more sense as an extension.

thasmin• 15 years ago

This was certainly the right decision. Mozilla and Google have much different goals, and it would have been silly for Mozilla to commit the necessary resources to this idea when the benefits to Mozilla and the customer are not guaranteed. Implementing this properly could take over a year and the end result may not even improve the product.

Google decided to go forward with this project because the corporation will greatly benefit if it succeeds. Mozilla does not have the correct payoff to take the risk.

jeffdavis• 15 years ago

I don't think anyone is claiming that the concept of "circles" is a radical innovation. It's quite natural, and similar (if not identical) ideas have been expressed many times before (from what I've heard about "circles" anyway).

What's news is that Google is putting its full weight behind the idea, including a slick implementation. And it might turn out to be a better alternative to Facebook, which would mean a big shift in the markets over the next few years.

naqabas• 15 years ago

Exactly. Just like this company called Beluga - http://belugapods.com/. They use 'pods' instead of circles.

Duff2• 15 years ago

Mozilla doesn't want to do something? Shocking!

This is the same organization that feels that producing a MSI installer for Windows or providing some other way to customize the installation/patching experience is a waste of time.

sp332• 15 years ago

Not to repeat the same "then do it yourself" thing, but if it were really so important to so many corporations, wouldn't one of them have done it (or hired/sponsored someone to do it) by now? I'm just getting the impression that, for all the yelling, it's not that big a deal.

sciurus• 15 years ago

http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/

They also provide a patched version of Firefox that supports management via Group Policy and a tool that lets you generate a MSI of firefox bundled with extensions.

Duff2• 15 years ago

Yeah, sure. Expecting a third-party to maintain an installer is not a recipe for success. A few projects try to do that and provide some sort of group policy support -- but they're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It just doesn't work well.

Security updates are a bigger deal. Auto-update doesn't cut it with large networks with constrained bandwidth or where users don't have admin rights. When you use sane installers, that problem magically disappears.

My previous employer was willing to invest some $ to give back to Mozilla for just this purpose, but was unable to contact anyone at Moz who gave a crap.

My current employer gave up -- we automatically uninstall Firefox as it appears. Our primary browser is now Chrome -- 80% of intranet hits are Chrome today. Chrome addresses most of these issues, and my users are happy. (Except for the users of some Oracle app that uses IE6)

The Mozilla people are fat and happy because of the ad deal that they have with Google. When Google decides that they don't need Firefox anymore, the Moz folks will probably wish they hadn't given a virtual finger to all IT folks.

omouse• 15 years ago

Does anyone know if GNU Social shares similarities with Google+?

drivebyacct2• 15 years ago

Haven't various sharing models that look very similar to Circles been around for some time?

I have LOTS of friend lists on Facebook. I have Close Friends, Family, Teacher/RA/Restricted, Strangers and then my cohorts broken down by class for various reasons. Now, sometimes Facebook extrapolates from privacy settings for a post and changes my global privacy setting which is annoying but it's trivial to keep an eye on it.

But basically, my geeky posts get my cohorts, my funny posts get posted openly and my rants about drug policy or whatever are blocked from my family.

rachelbythebay• 15 years ago

http://info.lycos.com/releases.php?id=1550

"LYCOS KEEPS YOU IN THE LOOP WITH CIRCLES, A UNIQUE, NEW SOCIAL SHARING PLATFORM" -- from 2004.

cpearce• 15 years ago

That's the last straw. I'm switching back to Lynx and Mutt!

Google+ Circles - Thunderbird didn't want to implement it in 2009

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