Firefox 3.5 Gets Geolocation, Powered By Google

Useless for me, at work at least. We go through a proxy down in Atlanta (I'm in Pennsylvania)... so it's usually a bit off. Just a bit.

I'm not sure I like Geolocation. Is there a way to spoof other locations? For example, I'm going on vacation soon, so I want my geolocation to be the vacation spot instead of my home town. Is that possible?

I'll bet I get the same frustration from it that I have with my iTouch's location service: I can't just tell it where I am. Last time I tried Geode, it wasn't even close.

/I'm jailbroken. If anyone knows a hack to override L.S., please let me know.

Xander

@bswilson: Yeah, I think if Mozilla really believes this material would aid the browser's functionality, then they should just recommend them to the user somehow, or make the extensions come pre-installed, but not enabled. That would help solve the memory-bloat problem, but not the disk-bloat problem.

BrianB

Outside of the ridiculous privacy concerns here (yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can turn the function off), this type of bloat is going to be one of the many nails in Firefox's coffin, I'm afraid.

I started using Firebird back in the day because it was so stripped down, and we all know that Extensions are what gives this browser it's juice.

Why, oh why, can't Firefox developers leave things like this as Extension material? Let the users who want the feature install it.

If it wasn't built in, not nearly as many external services would support it. Privacy issues aside there is a method to their madness.

skyhopper88

I sure hope this nonsense can be turned off. Firefox is definitely straying from it's original design.

Why not provide this as an extension for people who love to surrender every last little bit of privacy they have left.

minimal

wtf? Is this thing easy to disable?

kartal

@bswilson: I agree, Firefox was designated as a safer and more secure browser. Privacy is at the top of that list and features like this are the complete opposite, especially something that ties into Google. What are they thinking? Firefox will indeed nail themselves into a coffin with this stuff...

I use Adblock Plus, No Script, Better Privacy to keep Google away, why on earth would I want to broadcast my GPS location to them?

@bswilson: Exactly! The model of providing a functional core with pluggable extensions will always be a winner. It also helps cut down on electronic obesity.

@skyhopper88: Yes but unless it's opt-in (which I doubt) then a lot of people will be broadcasting their location to every website they visit without knowing it. Only a minority will disable it (the same minority that blocks DoubleClick, Beacon and Flash cookies) and the rest will be treated like objects.

@bswilson: I'm pretty sure there's a psychological "need to improve" going on within the development team. While I agree that this should stay out of Firefox's core, I can't blame them. At this point, there are few bullet points you can add to the back of Firefox's box and not bloat it. I imagine the same thing happened to Photoshop back in the day. They 'improved' it so much that it became this incredibly obese but powerful (or so I here) beast that new users can barely look at without a migraine.

Switch0025

Time to switch away from Firefox I guess.

mario_grgic

can you please post a link where one can test this feature?

moritzvd

Great new feature. To everyone who is concerned about privacy, your geolocation isn't shared unless you specifically approve it at the site that requests it. It says so in the Firefox info about Geolocation.

Just tried it out, and although I couldn't find any option to disable it, it is fairly easy to understand. Gives you the option of 'Tell Them' or 'Don't Tell Them' when asking if a site can have your location. Probably have to get a master off switch in the final release though. Also, anyone else having problems signing in with FB connect?

KenArmadillo

It is opt-in (popup asking if you want to give location to x)

SarojaNero

Or perhaps have the extension come pre-installed/configured, that way, those of us who don't want/use it can remove it easily via the extensions interface.

SudeeptaMerope

I agree with bswilson. My load time for Firefox has doubled since I started using it. Maybe it's time for a split of the code into two paths, one for those who think bloat is good, and one for us that looks for speed.

LeanderGanjka

@ FupDuckTV I would definitely be interested in functionality that does that. Maybe some addon that lets you specify where you are. @ bswilson feature doesn't always equal bloat. much of this is in javascript which is not evaluated until used therefore doesn't use any system resources. Firefox 3.5 b4 is alot faster than any previous version. I be curious to see your actual data that points to the bloat you are seeing so that I can help fix it.

Merciklikklak

This is a bother for reasons already given by others. It's not a privacy issue for me. It's the potential for bloat. I dislike this, as much as I dislike the idea of baking ubiquity functionality into the browser. If I ever use these features at all, I want them optional, totally attachable/detachable.... extensions I mean.

What I want Mozilla to work on, is some kind of slimming down of the code as it is now. If I work at it, I can still have FF "lean and mean" as they say. But Mozilla seems to make that a little harder to do as time goes on.

I think I would just like all the visionaries and do-gooders to leave the browser alone as much as possible.... save their ideas for addons.

paintbox