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Mozilla is best known as the creator of Mozilla, the popular web browser. And not just that, as Mozilla also creates a bunch of online tools to improve online experience and privacy.
While Firefox and other online tools have made a name for themselves, things aren't looking good for the organization.
A year and a half after launching the free file-sharing service Firefox Send, Mozilla starts abandoning the project.
Another service that Mozilla is abandoning, is Firefox Notes. Mozilla said that Notes would be decommissioned on Android in November 1, and Mozilla won't be providing any security update to the desktop browser's add-on after that date.
The news came as part of the organization's "restructuring" that began after Mozilla laid off a quarter of its workforce.
In a blog post announcing the news, Mozilla wrote that:
Firefox Send was a tool for encrypted file sharing.
While it was promising, many users managed to abuse the product to send malware and conduct spear phishing attacks to others.
"This summer we took Firefox Send offline to address this challenge."
During the intervening period, as Mozilla weighed the cost of its overall portfolio and strategic focus, the organization decided to not relaunch the service.
As for Firefox Notes, it was meant to introduce some new methods of encrypted data syncing. Because the project asked users to try out experimental features and functionalities, "we kept the product as a little utility tool For Firefox and Android users."
While Notes received positive reviews from users, Mozilla is also shutting it down on November 1, 2020.
"Three important changes will occur on this date," Mozilla said in a support document. "The Notes browser extension will no longer receive performance or security updates, and if you uninstall Notes, you will not be able to reinstall it." At that same time, the Notes' Android app will stop working and syncing of all content will also stop working.
The Firefox Notes' browser extension for desktop will remain available for those who have installed it, and Mozilla will include an option to export all notes.
But again, because Mozilla isn't going to support it anymore, users should do a final sync and then export their Notes' content as HTML before November 1.
While Mozilla did not go into more detail on its decision, reports from employees who were laid off, alleged that among the people who were unemployed were from Mozilla's threat team. They are the people who would presumably have been responsible for maintaining the two services.
"While saying goodbye is never easy," said Mozilla, adding that the decision would allow it to "sharpen" its focus on other services like Mozilla VPN, Firefox Monitor, and Firefox Private Network.