This was certainly the right decision. Mozilla and Google have much different goals, and it would have been silly for Mozilla to commit the necessary resources to this idea when the benefits to Mozilla and the customer are not guaranteed. Implementing this properly could take over a year and the end result may not even improve the product.<p>Google decided to go forward with this project because the corporation will greatly benefit if it succeeds. Mozilla does not have the correct payoff to take the risk.
I don't think anyone is claiming that the concept of "circles" is a radical innovation. It's quite natural, and similar (if not identical) ideas have been expressed many times before (from what I've heard about "circles" anyway).<p>What's news is that Google is putting its full weight behind the idea, including a slick implementation. And it might turn out to be a better alternative to Facebook, which would mean a big shift in the markets over the next few years.
The title's a little suggestive. It was an 'enhancement' bug request, and the response was that it should be implemented as an extension. Then it was marked WONTFIX. The assignee thought it sounded cool.
<a href="http://info.lycos.com/releases.php?id=1550" rel="nofollow">http://info.lycos.com/releases.php?id=1550</a><p>"LYCOS KEEPS YOU IN THE LOOP WITH CIRCLES, A UNIQUE, NEW SOCIAL SHARING PLATFORM" -- from 2004.
Haven't various sharing models that look very similar to Circles been around for some time?<p>I have LOTS of friend lists on Facebook. I have Close Friends, Family, Teacher/RA/Restricted, Strangers and then my cohorts broken down by class for various reasons. Now, sometimes Facebook extrapolates from privacy settings for a post and changes my global privacy setting which is annoying but it's trivial to keep an eye on it.<p>But basically, my geeky posts get my cohorts, my funny posts get posted openly and my rants about drug policy or whatever are blocked from my family.
Mozilla doesn't want to do something? Shocking!<p>This is the same organization that feels that producing a MSI installer for Windows or providing some other way to customize the installation/patching experience is a waste of time.