586780 - Enable Sharing in Context Menu

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Menus, defect)

Description

[John Wayne Hill (UX Intern)]

Attachment: Mockups and User Flow with details

The browser can make sharing easy by integrating sharing into the browser. If we know what social networks you use, by what passwords you’ve saved in Firefox, we should be able to enable sharing in Firefox.

We should enable sharing of images, videos, links, and other media via the context (right click) menu.

A user should be able to simply right-click an image, video, or link and then click Share. From here a nice overlay should appear with a preview of the thing to be sent, a URL auto filled into a text area, an area to add more information (comment, text, etc), a way to choose what service to use, and a way to share the item with only particular people.

More information with mockups and user flow available at: 
http://www.johnwaynehill.com/blog/2010/08/12/sharing-in-firefox/

I've done some research to figure out which social networks we should support. That information is stored in a Google Spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmqAyg8g3AFndHl6T294aEFLX0dqYmpUa1VxN1V1SXc&hl=en&authkey=COWA6PoF

Comment 1

[Antoine Turmel [:GeekShadow]]

That would be awesome, let's make it happen :)

Comment 2

[[not reading bugmail]]

I think it might be worth doing, if there was a way to configure share options.  Since some options might die off or new one's added, so it certainly needs to be flexible to add remove share option albeit like search engines.

Comment 3

[Ian Pottinger]

If the home page had a very simple default layout that was enhanced by a standard extension that was packaged with Firefox on download then not only would additions or changes be a just a matter of releasing an upgrade to the extension but also alternate home page ideas could be explored by the extension community.

Comment 4

[Ragavan S [:rags]]

Interesting concepts, John. 

In case you aren't aware, we have been thinking a lot about this as part of our Online Identity Concept Series work in Mozilla Labs as well. In particular, check out http://mozillalabs.com/conceptseries/identity/share-in-the-browser/ .

There are some natural integration points with the Firefox Contacts work as well.

And another project that is worth looking into is OExchange: http://www.oexchange.org/

We should talk about this more and work together!

Comment 5

[skierpage]

Fennec 2.0 will "Support easy sharing of certain objects (links, pages, bookmarks, etc.) with social networks and contacts."  So just merge bug 582615 into mozilla-central :-)

(In reply to comment #4)
> There are some natural integration points with the Firefox Contacts work as
> well.
Yup, the Contacts extension for Firefox/Thunderbird has interesting Finder and Services tabs where one can enable/disable and connect/disconnect from online services; I don't fully trust or understand them :-/  Obviously, one's browser connecting to online services with your password to pull and push stuff must be apparent and no-surprises.

Comment 6

[Marko Kaznovac]

this should be classified as an enhancement
may I suggest to leave this kind of functionality to the add-ons

Comment 7

[ykz]

I'd like to see the "Send Image" button replaced with this. the Send Image button is useless in Firefox as it stands. Email is old and obsolete with new methods of sharing present.

Comment 8

[John Drinkwater (:beta)]

This would work really well with WebIntents.

(In reply to steve.g.kelly from comment #7)
> I'd like to see the "Send Image" button replaced with this. the Send Image
> button is useless in Firefox as it stands. 

Share > Email (desktop app)
        Flickr (webintent)
        Gmail (webintent)