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Comment by swehner | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like better left for a browser plugin

My first thought too. Firefox seems to be cramming stuff in as default recently that's really peripheral; strikes me we're approaching that point in the cycle where a new streamlined offering comes along and people start jumping ship to that. The place where Firefox started as a simple fast web browser without the bells and whistles.

There are many, many broken links on the web and it seems like this feature could get a lot of use.

As TFA says, it is a browser plugin.

Just so this is clear: This is not a new feature in Firefox. They are just giving people a way to test it and to give feedback. Depending on the response, it might then become a feature, but for now it's only a proposition.

This is an opt-in experiment in an opt in program.

The irony with your comment is that this is exactly one of the purposes of Test Pilot - to give new features a trial run rather than just "cramming stuff in as default".

It's an opt-in experiment, and at the end it's possible to a) be rolled in as a feature, b) spun off as an optional add-on, c) scrapped entirely.

Oh yeah, or d) taken back to the drawing board & re-engineered for another go-round.

I've taken part in Test Pilot, so I'm aware of how it works. Hence the wording of my comment that it was my initial reaction.

The idea that it's appropriate as a plugin is in anticipation that they'd decide to integrate it like hello and pocket.

It's a feeling, there are all sorts of different browser efforts, FF just feels like we're getting to a point where it is drifting closer to the other browsers and getting heavier. YMMV.

For what it's worth, that is one of the proposed exit plans for experiments in Test Pilot. If it doesn't look like it would succeed as a built-in feature, spinning it off as an add-on is a possibility if it has enough support from developers & users to maintain it that way.

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