Sync your Firefox settings via Google: There are privacy issues galore here, but the fact remains I’ve been wishing for something like this for a long time.
Google Labs releases the Google Sync Firefox extension, which saves your browser’s cookies, passwords, bookmarks, history and current list of open tabs to your Google account and downloads them to any other Firefox-runnin’ Google Sync-enabled computer you use so you can “take your browser with you.”
Hey man, if you can’t trust Google, who can you trust?
Here's something I'd love — the ability to synchronize two installations of the same software on two different computers. I'm thinking right now of Thunderbird. I have so many settings customized — email accounts, RSS feeds, custom search rules, address book entries, adaptive spam filters, etc. Settings I tweak…
It's time for applications to start running off of remote configuration files. By this, I mean have applications store their settings in a file they access via an HTTP call, instead of on the local file system. Take NewsGator, for example. At the office, I add and remove subscriptions…
"Hey man, if you can?t trust Google, who can you trust?"
The Chinese government?
How about adding Theme and Extension syncing? that'd be awesome - at least give you a list with direct links to download all the extensions you have on your main computer.
I've ben wishing for something like this for over 2 years as well. I even talked about the benefits of a centralized bookmark service at Google at length in the WebmasterWorld forum (and kinda like to think that this gave those guys at the 'plex the idea). But this was two years ago. I'm much more critical now, especially in light of all the new services coming from Google which all depend on you giving them your data.
For bookmarks, there is a very nice Firefox extension called "Bookmark Sync and Sort". It was built on the ruins of the not-maintained-anymore extension "Synchronize Bookmarks" and works like a charm. YOU can decide where you store your bookmarks. All you need to have is some accessible web- or FTP-space.
For me, this is now much more appealing as passing over my bookmarks and settings to Google. They already know too much about me to feel comfortable.
Maybe I'm a tinfoil hat case, but I'd rather be in control myself.
How about trusting Amazon S3? Thats what we use at adaptiveblue (http://www.adaptiveblue.com) to store our customer information. The security moel is open to the public, and you know no one is analyzing at your data.
Alex
"Hey man, if you can?t trust Google, who can you trust?"
Two billion oppressed Chinese can't trust them, for starters.
