Not gonna happen. Facebook is dotcom 2.0 through and through, and no social networking site has an interest in standardising export; walled gardens are the business plan.

There is a small change. Facebook among many others are part of DataPortability now. How much comes out of that is of course subject to speculation.

Google Desktop has proven a good solution for many who need better search with their email client.

Google Desktop has proven a good solution for almost nobody who needs better search in their mail. If Google Desktop were an adequate way of indexing mail for Thunderbird’s target client base, it’d be an adequate way of indexing web browser history and bookmarks too. Sometimes you simply have to reinvent the wheel, and it doesn’t hurt when you’re removing a dependency on proprietary software in the process.

Personally I’d like to see some standard emerge where closed messaging services can essentially be interfaced like an IMAP account.

Not gonna happen. Facebook is dotcom 2.0 through and through, and no social networking site has an interest in standardising export; walled gardens are the business plan.

What Thunderbird could really do with is some seriously concentrated workflow examination from some UI experts. The basic interface hasn’t changed much in ten years, and there must be some optimisation that can be made to the most common tasks of the client.

– Chris