AllPeers Reaches Agreement to Offer Mozilla Firefox with AllPeers BundleWednesday June 6th, 2007AllPeers has reached an agreement with the Mozilla Foundation to allow a version of Mozilla Firefox with the AllPeers extension pre-installed to be offered for download. Originally launched eight months ago, AllPeers lets users share files with their friends and families from within Firefox. Designed to be easy to use with its "Drag-and-Share" operation, AllPeers makes use of peer-to-peer technology (the extension features a custom implementation of the BitTorrent protocol) and employs encryption to ensure privacy and security. The AllPeers site has a Flash tour of AllPeers, which provides more information about how it works. According to AllPeers CEO and co-founder Cedric Maloux, "Approximately 10% of new AllPeers users download Firefox in order to install our application." As AllPeers has been downloaded over 350,000 times since its launch, this suggests that up to 35,000 people may have downloaded Firefox mainly to use AllPeers (though this figure is probably lower due to upgrades from existing AllPeers users). By making it easier for new AllPeers users to get started and pushing Firefox to users who might not otherwise download it, the Firefox with AllPeers bundle should be a win for both sides. Today also sees the launch of a new release of the AllPeers extension. Version 0.60 includes a Share by Email feature, making it possible to share files with users who do not already have AllPeers installed. It also introduces an Always On service, which allows users to upload (encrypted) files to a server so that they can be downloaded even if the sharing user is offline. Peer Pressure, the AllPeers weblog, has a post with more details about AllPeers 0.60. Christopher Beard from the Mozilla Corporation approves of the Firefox with AllPeers bundle. "AllPeers is extending Firefox in meaningful ways for our users by delivering integrated file-sharing capabilities," he said. "Their release of Firefox with AllPeers demonstrates the virtuous cycle enabled by the Firefox platform: users and developers both benefit from the open architecture of our add-ons ecosystem." This is not the first time that the Mozilla Foundation has allowed a third-party to offer downloads of Firefox bundled with an extension. The most famous example is probably the deal with Google that allows the search giant to offer Firefox with the Google Toolbar included to its users. This bundle has become widely promoted across the Web due to Google paying bounties to AdSense publishers who persuade users to download Firefox with the Google Toolbar. As with the previous deals, the primary version of Firefox promoted on the mozilla.com site will continue to not include any extensions or other bundled software. Currently, Firefox with AllPeers is only available from the AllPeers site. Thanks to Steve Kerns, Marketing Alchemist for AllPeers, for telling us about the Firefox with AllPeers bundle and for slipping us a draft copy of the press release before the official announcement. Not having used AllPeers before, I was a bit curious about it... Its basically a private bittorrent network neatly wrapped up into Firefox. You can only share to people that you know, so its not like a traditional (semi-anonymous) bittorrent client. It appears to have no Adware/Spyware. I don't think any money is being made from this product, but maybe that comes later; or never. If you already have Firefox, you can get the extension here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3234 <a href="http://www.2firefox.com">firefox</a> |