You may not have noticed, but Firefox now includes a “Social API” that allows Facebook and other social networks to integrate with your browser. Firefox is providing Facebook a way to integrate with your browser and stay with you everywhere on the web.
These features are a bit reminiscent of Flock, a Firefox-derived “social browser” that failed to gain traction a few years ago. This time, the features are baked into Firefox and are optional — you won’t see them unless you install a social provider.
What’s a Social API?
Firefox’s Social API allows websites to register as “social providers.” They’ll integrate with your Firefox browser, displaying information in a sidebar that stays with Firefox wherever you go on the web. It’s a bit like service-specific browser extensions, but it allows web services to integrate with your browser more easily than they could if they had to code their own extensions from scratch.
These services can display information and controls in the browser’s “chrome” — such as in its toolbar and sidebar. They can be installed without any browser restarts and used immediately.
