Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,300
30,390



Mozilla today announced it has acquired read-it-later app Pocket, which it says has 10 million unique monthly active users on iOS, Android, and the web. The app, formerly known as Read It Later, launched in 2007 and is integrated in services such as Flipboard and Twitter. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Mozilla-Pocket.jpg

Pocket will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Mozilla Corporation and will become part of the Mozilla open source project, the company said. Pocket's core employees and technology will help accelerate its Context Graph initiative, while promoting the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content.

Mozilla CEO Chris Beard:
"We believe that the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content is key to keeping the internet healthy by fighting against the rising tide of centralization and walled gardens. Pocket provides people with the tools they need to engage with and share content on their own terms, independent of hardware platform or content silo, for a safer, more empowered and independent online experience."
Mozilla and Pocket worked together to integrate the service within Firefox in 2015, and this acquisition will allow the teams to work more closely together.

Mozilla's acquisition follows in the footsteps of Instapaper, one of Pocket's biggest rivals, which was acquired by Pinterest in August 2016.

Article Link: Mozilla Acquires Read-it-Later App Pocket
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,355
3,375
I am curious to see how this affects Pocket’s premium features. I stopped using them when they started injecting ‘recommendations’ into my list. It put me off so much, that I migrated away to Instapaper almost immediately.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Happy-Mac

Michaelgtrusa

macrumors 604
Oct 13, 2008
7,900
1,821
Why kill it? It works fantastically well under Sierra and serves its purpose completely. It's meant to be a lightweight and simple app in line with the service as a whole. I'm personally glad they don't mess with it.
It does need an update. If not it will break at some point.
 

OS X Dude

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,128
611
UK
I've never used any of these type of apps. Is it really that useful?

Absolutely, mainly because it downloads the webpage so you've always got access to the content even if the page is altered or removed. Combine that with the ability to add tags to each webpage/media and you can start to also use it as a cross-platform archival tool, perfect for recipes or anything you want to keep for reference.

It's free, so best bet is to give it a go and see if it works for you. Mozilla are one of the few companies I would trust with my data and respect for privacy, so if anyone had to buy them out I'm glad it's them and not Microsoft or Google.
 

Glassed Silver

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2007
2,096
2,567
Kassel, Germany
Why kill it? It works fantastically well under Sierra and serves its purpose completely. It's meant to be a lightweight and simple app in line with the service as a whole. I'm personally glad they don't mess with it.
Hmm, that feeling is so common these days... "yay, my favorite app xyz hasn't been updated in n months!"

These days apps and services heavily trend towards worse and dumbed down.

I'm glad when **** stays the same more often than not. :eek:

Glassed Silver:mac
 

Zoddino

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2010
116
70
Likely gonna integrate it into Firefox and make it the only option for using it. Bye bye Pocket.

It's already integrated into Firefox and it is going to be open source according to ghacks. So no need to worry, it's Mozilla we're talking about not Google
 

Nostromov

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2017
1
0
Belgrade
I've never used any of these type of apps. Is it really that useful?
Absolutely [..]

LOL, says the man w/username gigapocket1! xD

Absolutely, the way to deal with it is to right-click, Customize... the Title Bar Toolbar and slide Pocket off; Then right after restarting Firefox, from about:config, disable Pocket by setting to false: extensions.pocket.enabled

extensions_pocket_enabled_Copy.png


I dislike Mozilla. They've fallen behind and seem to have lost their way.

^^ Addressing that issue, some ~6-7 years ago - whenever it was, since (ALL of) the devs jumped ship - the post 4.x version re-structuring... There was no going back, when it had happened.

I suppose how (Google) Chrome had a large part to play it in (maybe), but there was still no reason to go with the whole Australis travesty and API... Just to be able to "compete", with... Something - I don't know what; what and who they're running against, whatever. :-/

*THANKFULLY, though, HTML5 could not have come (out) at a better time!.. Video capabilities: compression, encoding; being able to eliminate 3rd-party plugins (& whatever), such as Real Audio, Adobe, DivX and all the rest! =)

The thing about it is that it's a runaway-train, as there are (even) more horrendous changes on the way - the WebExtensions. Coupled with Java and whatnot, we're gonna be entering an era of (web) browser botnets... Google Chrome has already been there a while, for people who don't check their advanced options - in order to dis-select keeping things running in the background, which is turned-on by default (l-mao, the madness). A testing-ground for the (mobile) Android OS.

Pardon the wall-of-text, I keep condensing the post (& deleting!), but it's hard to squeeze it all in, blah. ;-/

++ Plus, I'm (way, LOL) off-topic again - in the Mac section.

Oh, my goodness, ROTFLMAO, just realized; part of that quote, OS X Dude's post about it being FREE... Omg., that's so sad: Apple Macintosh users having to STATE how something is being offered for free - because LMAO, everything else costs an-arm-and-a-leg. Pftt. xD

It's free [..]

Yeah, that's it (!), I've gone delirious, lolo. Better GTHO, but let us (me!) know - if you will - who, IN THE WORLD, would even use this Pocket, offline, feature?.. In order to read, what, when?! Bookmarking something and getting to it the next time is no longer fashionable, or something?! Honestly, I don't get it. :)
 
Last edited:

AndyK

macrumors 65816
Jan 10, 2008
1,025
377
Terra
So Instapaper went to Pinterest and Pocket to Mozilla. Hopefully one of them survives because they're the only decent options.
 

timod

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2017
1
0
So Instapaper went to Pinterest and Pocket to Mozilla. Hopefully one of them survives because they're the only decent options.
Did you try Paperspan already? simple & neat. I don't want worms inside my Pocket when Im on to read.
 

Fall Under Cerulean Kites

macrumors 6502
May 12, 2016
272
852
Why kill it? It works fantastically well under Sierra and serves its purpose completely. It's meant to be a lightweight and simple app in line with the service as a whole. I'm personally glad they don't mess with it.

I had no clue there even was a macOS app. Thanks. Downloading!

Pocket is sort of like a roach motel for me. Pages check in but they don’t check out. I put a lot of stuff into Pocket that I never go back to read. Maybe the app will help with that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OS X Dude
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.