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Netstat -vat by Sean Michael Kerner (bio)

A command line view of IT



Mozilla Raindrop takes on Google Wave

By Sean Michael Kerner on October 23, 2009 10:09 AM
mozilla.raindrop_small.jpg
From the "Singing in the Rain' files:

Mozilla is now testing yet another technology to try and help us all integrate the various messages we all generate everyday.

The new Raindrop effort comes from the Mozilla Messaging division as a way to help unify conversations.
"Raindrop uses a mini web server to fetch your conversations from different sources (mail, twitter, RSS feeds), intelligently pulls out the important parts, and allows you to interact with them using your favorite modern web browser," the Mozilla Labs Raindrop site states.
Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Raindrop at this point is browser agnostic. That is, it is supposed to be able to work on Firefox, Safari or Chrome (sorry IE).

Kinda/sorta might maybe be similar to Google Wave in some ways. Mozilla Labs also has its Snowl effort which brings in conversations from multiple streams as well, though it isn't tightly integrated with email -- instead Snowl is a Firefox add-on.
"When a friend's link from YouTube or flickr arrives, your messaging client should be able to show the video or photos near or as part of the message, rather than rudely kicking you over to a separate browser tab,"the Raindrop blog states. "Notifications from computers and mailing lists should be organized for you, not clutter your Inbox or require tedious manual filter setup. It should be easy to smoothly integrate new web services into your conversation viewer entirely using open web technologies."
Yes of course it's a good idea, and that's why others have tried and are continuing to try and do the same thing.
The difference with Raindrop is that it's open source and open to all.

Try that with Google Wave which is open by invitation-only to the digital elites. Where Raindrop has an excellent opportunity to be successful is in leveraging the Mozilla model for open participation and collaboration.

By breaking out of the one browser mentality and opening Raindrop up from the beginning to all modern web browsers, Mozilla is showing its intent on not locking people into Firefox (or any other one browser). Messaging is about more than just email and it's about more than just the browser.

There is a need to unify conversations and messaging across different types social networks and email systems. Doing it well is a challenge and I for one look forward to seeing (and using) Raindrop and watching it evolve.

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4 Comments

Bud Gallant said:

Interesting article, but I do not think it sounds very similar to GoogleWave. Wave's focus is not on notifications from other sites, but a cross between email and chat and web posting designed as a collaboration platform.

Frankly, what you describe of Raindrop sounds like it has been done for a long time already, though perhaps not in realtime, and setting up filters to organize notifications in Gmail is not complicated at all. It's very easy.

"Mozilla is showing its intent on not locking people into Firefox (or any other one browser)."
Really? What about IE. Funny how Google's services work with IE, and yet Mozilla is supposed to be all-inclusive.

The difference between Google and Mozilla is that Google remains relevant for reasons other than it's web browser, which is vastly superior to Firefox, and as soon as it is available for mac and linux, Firefox will be thrown on the dust heap it belongs. IE will be around much longer. I wouldn't discount it.

October 23, 2009 11:23 AM
Alexander Biggs said:

Bud: At the risk of going off topic, I'm curious to know what you have against Firefox that makes you conclude that it will be discarded when current version Chrome is available for Mac and Linux. Chrome currently has no support for extensions: that alone is more than enough for me to choose Firefox over it.

Other than that, I agree that Raindrop isn't a competitor to Google Wave. Raindrop seems to be intended to solve a problem ongoing with social networking in general right now: namely, it seems to be aimed towards making the personal stuff in your Inbox stand out from all the advertising and newsletters etc.. On the other hand, Wave is intended as a new platform for communication/collaboration.

October 23, 2009 12:31 PM
Daniel Gill said:

For the record, Google Wave will eventually be open to all. As others have mentioned, this includes the open sourcing of a possibly transformational real time communication protocol.

I can see Wave taking on rain drop as robots and gadgets get created for wave to aggregate data from across the web.

October 23, 2009 10:21 PM
plord said:

Bud
I agree with comments by A Biggs. I have tested both browser in all builds. During testing FF kicks google butt with video, native html support and uses way less resources. The really big issue for me is the lack of add on & extensions in google

I can't comment on the article as I did not get a google wave invite but I will explore raindrop, because I can .

October 24, 2009 9:47 AM

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