Mozilla Labs Weave | is Mozilla’s vision to become the operating system of the Internet

Firefox has been working on browser synronisation for some time, and they are coming out with a broader implementation for Firefox 3.0, that will allow you to store passwords, bookmarks, history etc, [see graphic below] in the cloud, “Your Firefox”. 

Mozilla Expands Its Universe With Weave TechCrunch

Mozilla’s vision is clearly to become the operating system of the Internet, much as Windows is the OS for most desktops. Web applications already run through the browser, and now some of the user data will be stored on servers connected to the browser, too.

This approach brings a few advantages:

• important information is stored off your computer, so is less prone to theft
• you can easily share computers, and continue your normal browsing experience

In general as we move towards a more web based lifestyle, Mozilla Weave supports that approach.  More and more the concerns of one computer, and fear of hard drive failure, computer theft, and simply computer upgrading are gradually dissipating.   The opportunities to become more network centric in our computer lives are expanding.  Also of note is the Mozilla inclusion of Mobile in this view.

Other things that support this movement are:

• web storage services, such as Amazon S3
• back up web services, such as rsynch, JungleDisk

Some operating principles outlined by Chris Beard, VP &  GM of Mozilla Labs.  In essence the browser becomes integrated with the web.  Fascinating!

And while we’ve just started to explore this idea, we do have some proposed organizing principles. We would:

• provide a basic set of optional Mozilla-hosted online services
• ensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services with freely available open standards-based tools
• provide users with the ability to fully control and customize their
  online experience, including whether and how their data should be
  shared with their family, their friends, and third-parties
• respect individual privacy (e.g. client-side encryption by default with the ability to delegate access rights)
• leverage existing open standards and propose new ones as needed
• build a extensible architecture like Firefox

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