Firefox brings back the command line

Mozilla is expected to launch a Firefox add-on this week that combines the advantages of the command-line and the graphical interface.

The new functionality, called Ubiquity, is designed to facilitate sharing of information over the web. If you spot a picture on a web page that you want to send to your friend, you right-click on it to get a text box into which you can type: "Send to Joe Bloggs".

Firefox will then open an email client, look up Joe's address and send the image.

Chris Beard, vice-president and general manager of Mozilla Labs, told MIT Technology Review: "You just type in things that feel natural to you."

Ubiquity, which uses Javascript, will come with a choice of instructions, known as "verbs", but you will be able to add your own. The first version is also expected to be fairly primitive.

Atul Varma, one of those working on the project, wrote in a July 23 blog that it was still in the prototyping phase. He also warned that it favoured freedom of expression and experimentation over security.

"The particular dilemma that needs to be solved here is: how can one end-user trust that a word won't do anything harmful to their data or privacy – be it intentional or accidental – while still providing a a low barrier of entry for aspiring authors to write and distribute their own verbs?"

Comment: Bring back the command line, all is forgiven