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August 22, 2007
web-based protocol handler brainstorming
Similarly to how Firefox ships with a set of per-locale search providers, we'd also like to ship Firefox 3 with a default (per-locale) set of web-based protocol handlers. A list of possible protocols and candidate handlers has been started. What other protocols and handlers should we be considering? If you have ideas, please add them to the Discussion tab of that wiki page...
Posted by dmose at August 22, 2007 4:25 PM
Comments
Dan, it would be great if we could tailor the Candidate Web Services to reflect the local services for each localization. For instance Bloglines is not an appropriate service for most of the non-English speaking world.
Posted by: Gen Kanai at August 23, 2007 1:03 AM
@Gen: yes, definitely. My intent was just to get the ball rolling using en-US; I'll coordinate with Mic and Axel about whether they'd prefer to see us doing this all in parallel, and if so, how...
Posted by: dmose at August 23, 2007 3:45 PM
I think the optimum user experience would be this (using mailto: as an example):
- User clicks a mailto: link where the OS has no registered handler
- User is taken to a Mozilla page which says (using better words than these):
"You clicked a "mailto" link, designed to help you email someone. What you really want to do is tell Firefox who your webmail provider is, and then we'll make them work for you. Please click on the name of your webmail provider:
* Gmail (Google)
* YMail (Yahoo)
* ...
* Other"
The links install the relevant handler, and then simulate the effect of a click on the original link, so everything continues correctly.
So in other words, we (the Mozilla project) should be the default handler for all unknown protocols.
Posted by: Gerv at August 28, 2007 12:24 AM