Firefox 17 Launches With New Social API

Mozilla just launched the latest stable version of Firefox. This release introduces Firefox’s new Social API with a preview of the first social integration with Facebook Messenger for Firefox. This was previously only available in the Firefox beta channel. The Social API allows social services like Facebook, Twitter, blog networks or even news sites to easily add persistent social sidebars, toolbar notifications and chats to the browser, no matter which site a user is currently looking at.

Other services that could benefit from these persistent sidebars are email, groupware services, news sites and, of course, other social networks). While Mozilla isn’t able to announce any other partnerships yet, the organization is talking to some of the usual suspects (which I take to mean the likes of Twitter) about upcoming integrations. As for the reasoning behind the Social API, Nightingale argued that today’s social web presents new challenges for browser developers.