Fred Wilson is blogging about Firefox extensions today, specifically on the benefits of adding features to the content (the actual webpages) versus adding functionality to the chrome (new toolbars, sidebars, etc.).
He uses Mahalo Follow as an example to make the case for in-content data being more valuable than in-chrome, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Of course, that feeling might also be due to the microwaved kiwifruit I just ate.
We just rolled out Mahalo Follow 3.0, and the big new feature this time around is the ability to cross-post any links you recommend to Mahalo via the Follow toolbar between Twitter, del.icio.us, and Ma.gnolia. Just add your account info (process shown below), and after recommending a link for a Mahalo search term, your link will be auto-posted to whichever services you set up via the service’s API.
Notice that you can choose which services to cross-post to each time you recommend a link.
Follow 3.0 is compatible with Firefox 1.5 through 3.0 Beta 2 and Flock 1.0.*, and you can install it at the Mahalo Follow homepage.
Tonight at GnomeDex, Jason introduced Mahalo Follow, Mahalo’s first Firefox extension release, and a project in which I’ve invested a fair amount of effort.
Follow includes two components: (1) a Mahalo toolbar (with the requisite links and search box) that also sports a dropdown of the Mahalo directory and buttons that let you say whether you would, would not, or might recommend the page you’re reading to a friend.
The second component (2) is the “Follow” aspect. Pop open the Follow sidebar (Ctrl+Shift+F), and Follow will provide you with Mahalo pages that are relevant to your interests, based on the pages you’re viewing. Don’t worry – it’s not logging the URLs you visit or anything, simply parsing for keywords and finding SeRPs that match. It’s most interesting when you’re searching on Google or Yahoo (or the others): if Mahalo has a SeRP (Search Engine Results Page) that matches what you searched for (say, “ipod” or “Minneapolis Bridge Collapse”), it will pop the sidebar open and show you that SeRP so you can judge whether the Mahalo page (with human-selected links) or the search engine page (computer-generated) is more helpful.
You can download the extension here. There’s also a nifty contest going on where you can win prizes by referring people to download Mahalo Follow.