Bangalore: Firefox has released the version 17 of its web browser with awhole new social API, which allow the users to access social networking sites inside the sidebar of the browser itself, without switching between tabs.

The version comes with Facebook messenger integration to the browser and the API provides facilities for social networks like Twitter, blogs or even news sites to easily add social sidebars, toolbar notifications and chats to the browser, no matter which site a user is currently looking at.

Some of these features were present in the Rockmelt browser, but with the APIs appearance in a mainstream product like the Firefox, it would be interesting to see how “social” the competing browsers can be. With Firefox 17, the users can check notifications and see updates including comments and photo tags. They can respond right in the sidebar or they can hide it when they need less distraction.

According to Mozilla’s VP of Firefox Engineering, Jonathan Nightingale, “While users on the ‘normal’ web generally interact with a tab and close it and they again revisit their social sites. Mozilla tried to solve this problem by adding app tabs to Firefox. But people still had to work around the limitations of browsers because they were treating social just like any other sites. Social sites, however, need to be treated different from other sites, and that’s where the social API comes in.”

“It is an open protocol and other vendors are free to implement it,” added Nightingale.