Firefox Beta is taking the next step in making the Firefox Social API available to all Web developers.
Last year, Mozilla partnered with Facebook to develop and introduce the Social API. Earlier this year, we continued to refine the feature and extended that support to additional providers. The Social API is exciting because it offers users a way to interact with websites and Web apps in richer ways – it makes them more than “just a tab”. We’ve always thought these capabilities should be exposed to all websites, and in Firefox Beta, we’re making that a reality.
Firefox allows any website to prompt users to activate and make use of the Social API toolbar buttons, sidebar, chat windows, panels, notifications, and a brand-new Social API feature: the share panel. The activation mechanism is dead-simple, and makes it easy for users to enable these features directly from your website with only a couple of clicks. For developers, hooking into the API couldn’t be easier: social panels and sidebars just load URLs on your website, where you have full control over how things look and work.
We’re going to continue to improve the Social API documentation that you can find here. Stay tuned for future posts with more information about how to best make use of the Firefox Social API!
– Gavin Sharp, Lead Firefox Engineer