Pocket is one service of theirs I did use from time to time. Save an article you want to read later without committing it to a bookmark.
Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, their read-it-later and content discovery app, and Fakespot, their browser extension that analyzes the authenticity of online product reviews.
Submitted 1 day ago by Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/
Comments
gerowen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Wish they’d make bookmark not suck so much that using them felt like a commitment to organisationnal chores. The bookmark system is largely unchanged since the netscape days.
You cant search texts inside bookmarks because they only store the url. Which will break. Instead of saving the html itself, as if we still only has hundreds of gigabytes.
It should have a library level search system, capable of not just symbol text but intelligent summarization, categorization, search by relecant, content discovery algorithm, rss feed support all fully local, offline capable.
The whole thing, metadata, html, inages, video, files, code, replay of the changes over time. Yes I should be able to replay clicking “read more” as I expand comments on facebook. I should not lose my work to a page reload ever again. And no that’s nor “too much space”. Web pages are largely text sent super efficiently it is not that much information even compared to a gigabyte.
mr_satan@lemm.ee 1 day ago
What you’re describing is so much more difficult from a technical standpoint than you give it credit.
Static pages – sure, the plague of single page applications – oof, that’s a challenge.
bufalo1973@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Now imagine having google, bing, qwant, duck duck go and ecosia bookmarked.
ratzki@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
An recommendations for Pocket-Alternatives? I save articles on my phone and desktop and read on my tablet…
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Wallabag and Karakeep are popular open source apps
SulaymanF@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Instapaper is still going strong.
keegomatic@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Just started using Linkwarden, been cool so far.
2910000@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mozilla should fire their non-technical staff, strongly make the case for how they’re fighting for a free and open internet, and use a subscription model for Firefox to pay the bills
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Nobody is paying a subscription to use a browser they can get for free.
2910000@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Enough internet users are familiar with the adage “if a product is free, you are the product”, through personal experience
I’d be OK with paying for Firefox if it meant that it was stripped of all association with advertisers. And presumably, if Mozilla were freed from that association, they’d be able to make a stronger case for how they’re protecting a free internet
TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Patreon and Wikipedia are things people pay for that they can get for free. I have long wanted a way to directly find Firefox development and sustainability.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Everything good to halfway decent must die on the alter of cost cuts, but nevermind everyone investing all of the savings on dubious junk like AI.
reddig33@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Idiots.
IsaamoonKHGDT_6143@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Why doesn’t Mozilla change or add the MIT license to Pocket?
CannedYeet@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s a service. It doesn’t just run in the browser.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
You mean, perfect for self-hosting? 😀
lime@feddit.nu 1 day ago
Pika@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
pocket I never used. I found it ugly and just s violation of privacy as it moved a service that should be local only, to external webservers. I can see why it’s finally had the plug pulled
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It was redundant anyway, since it was just bookmarks with extra steps. But you can sync bookmarks between devices with Firefox anyway and you’ve been able to for years, so I have no idea why they kept it around other than to use it as a vehicle to push ads (because it seemed like roughly 25% of the “articles” it suggested to you were actually ads). I can’t say as I’m too sad to see it go.
Fakespot could arguably have been useful on paper, but I have to admit I never used it because I treat most online reviews as if they’re bullshit anyway.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Nah, it’s completely different from bookmarks. But obviously there’s no sense trying to sell anyone on it anymore.
lime@feddit.nu 1 day ago
the main thing with pocket and services like it is that it saves and syncs entire pages. like a local internet archive.
buffaloseven@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Count me in the group of people sad to see it go because it made it very easy to get articles onto my Kobo e-reader. There are other ways, but they’re all too labour intensive to be practical. Probably should have seen the writing on the wall, though.
slampisko@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If you use KoReader, you can use Wallabag for the same purpose.
buffaloseven@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I’ll have to see if I want to go to the rigamarole of setting up Wallabag on my home server or if I just fall back to using GoodLinks on iOS exclusively and forgo articles on my e-reader.
letsgo@lemm.ee 1 day ago
I tried pocket a couple of times but couldn’t get past the “we think you’re on a phone so you’re only getting three items on the screen at once”. Well I’m not on a phone, I’m on a desktop with a 32" monitor and three T-Rex sized items on my screen is just terrible design.
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Why don’t they just open it up to let people run their own Pocket services? The usual “proprietary code” excuses make no sense for an organization like Mozilla and it’s being end of lifed anyway. Just dump it on a repo somewhere and let people hack on it if they want to. Why isn’t this part of the sunsetting plan?
lime@feddit.nu 1 day ago
code has been open for about 10 years. it was a binary blob to begin with but nowadays it’s all here
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Fair enough, last I heard it wasn’t, and they certainly continue to talk like it isn’t. It feels like maybe the shutdown post might’ve been a good place to try to spread some awareness of this fact as it might be something people losing access to the service might be interested in.
kazerniel@lemmy.world 1 day ago
fuck, I’m using the Pocket plugin a lot :[
not for bookmarking, just to mark where I was in longer videos and webcomics, 1 click on/off, easy
jeena@piefed.jeena.net 1 day ago
Good.
k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I wanted to like pocket, but I never really understood the point of it when I was already using Reddit or Google News to curate what I liked to read about. Was it more privacy oriented?
embed_me@programming.dev 1 day ago
I found that articles in pocket were actually well written and didn’t make you pull your hairs out
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Shutting down two things that had no business being built in their browser, to replace them with more stuff that have no business being built in their browser.
Mozilla really embraced the “corporation must corporate” motto.
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
to replace them with more stuff that have no business being built in their browser.
what stuff do you mean? I mean, certainly not vertical tabs because they are useful, lots of firefox users like it. not me, but the world does not revolve around me, so…
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ll grant you vertical tabs. Unfortunately, the new focus of Mozilla is AI everywhere and advertisement, so I’m mildly concerned.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Bummer. I can see pocket going, I tried to use it but it’s basically a place to put stuff that you plant to but never actually get around to reading, a bookmark does the same thing. Fakespot I’m not sure about. I’ve used it, but there’s no way to verify how right it is.
Opacity9850@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Pocket goes hand in hand with procrastination.
prototact@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I hope they don’t remove Mozilla accounts too, I have all my bookmarks and sync between devices there. Zen browser that I use relies on this and I assume other browsers based off Firefox do too. Mozilla does not have a good managing team and they deserve to go down but there should be a transition period.
wewbull@feddit.uk 1 day ago
How can they sell your details if you don’t register for an account?
I’d personally much rather sync was done with no account. More like synching where clients connect directly to each other with a QR code (or cut&paste code)
JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
I’d prefer a self-hosted option. They could even do it the KeePass way where it just saves to a file and you’re responsible for syncing it.
malin@thelemmy.club 23 hours ago
Good riddance.
These companies need to stop pushing ‘features’ nobody cares about and then complaining they need more funding.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 day ago
FF is technically backed by GOOGLE advert money.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
My LLM says this is what’s known as a “MORAL HAZARD”
Zacryon@feddit.org 1 day ago
Taking evil Google money to make something good out of it seems fair enough.
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Good, they should exclusively focus on Firefox.
IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 1 day ago
And how they can monetize user data?
JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
They’re going to do that regardless.
Scrollone@feddit.it 1 day ago
Finally! I couldn’t wait for Pocket to shut down. One useless icon less in my Firefox.
kaidenshi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s not just that it was useless to some people, it was a genuine security risk. OpenBSD’s port of Firefox has it disabled by default, and LibreWolf strips it out of the browser entirely.
toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 1 day ago
part of me thinks “great, those things were annoying”
another part of me thinks it’s a harbinger
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I wouldn’t disagree that firefox is about to get enshittififed but I hope its not true.
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Well no one fucking likes or asked for pocket so good riddance.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Well, now you know otherwise. I use it daily.
GasMaskedLunatic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Good. I’ve been disabling this shit in about:config for one decade too many.
burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 1 day ago
i used pocket once, and after several steps to activate it, i realized that it was not at all what I thought it was going to be and never touched it again
arararagi@ani.social 1 day ago
Welp, guess I better start up the calibre extension to send pocket articles as a file for ebook readers.
desmosthenes@lemmy.world 1 day ago
shame about pocket - wonder how much of a hole that really burned in their pocket - if much
turkalino@lemmy.yachts 1 day ago
I never used Pocket itself, but I do like having the grid of news articles on the new tab page, which I believe is powered by Pocket in some shape or form. Anyone know if that feature is going away too?
0xD@infosec.pub 1 day ago
It’s just a fancy history, it has nothing to do with pocket.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Pocket absolutely would suggest you articles (and ads) by default unless you explicitly told it not to in your settings. This is separate from the tiles of frequently visited pages from your history.
The second slider down is your history/pinned shortcuts on the home screen. The third one is recommended junk, “Powered by Pocket.”
More info on that here, for however long this will do anyone any good:
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mozilla! Stop doing stupid stuff!
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Is this cause of the money they lost from the google thing?