That may be about to change, though, thanks to a new tool created by researchers at the University of Washington. Called "Vanish," the system places a time limit on any message posted to any web service through a web browser.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Vanish is that it's capable of erasing messages posted practically anywhere on the web. For example, the system is able to erase messages from any web-based email system like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, instant messaging chats, or even social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.

To accomplish this, the messages sent with Vanish are encrypted with a secret key, never revealed to the end user. The key is then divided into dozens of pieces and sent out over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks - the same ones where music and movie files are traded every day. Because file-sharing systems are in a state of constant change, the various key parts eventually become inaccessible. Once enough of them are lost, the message can no longer be decrypted and read.

In the current Vanish prototype, however, the network's computers purge their memory every eight hours to simulate the key loss that would occur on P2P networks.

From the recipient's perspective, a message sent using Vanish appears as gibberish until they highlight the text and then press the "Vanish" button to unscramble it.

Try it Now

Currently, the prototype is available as a free, open-source tool that works as a combination of downloadable software and a Firefox plugin. Both sender and recipient have to use the software and plugin in order for Vanish to work. If you would prefer to not install anything on your computer, there's also the Vanish Online Service which you can use from your web browser. Both options are available here if you'd like to try them out now.

According to a post on the Mozilla blog, the company will be working with PayPal to provide the developers with a secure way to facilitate international payments. Developers will be able to include a "Contribute" button on their add-on's page that displays a suggested amount. Users will be able to contribute either that amount or one of their own choosing. The developers will also have the option to create different PayPal IDs for each of their Firefox add-ons.

Because many developers may choose to only solicit a small amount for the add-on, Mozilla encourages them to look into using PayPal's micropayments fee structure, a system which reduces the transaction fees for payments under $12 (US).

As far as the donations themselves, the entire donated amount will go to the developers - Mozilla will not be taking a cut...at least for now. In carefully worded text, Mozilla responds in the Contributions FAQ that "for this pilot, Mozilla will not earn a percentage..." , which seemingly leaves the door open for a little skimming off the top at a later date.

Mozilla says they're calling the Contributions program a "pilot" because they want to solicit feedback from the community to shape the future of the program going forward.

New Developer Pages

Along with the pilot program, Mozilla is also launching "About the Developer" pages to accompany the add-on pages. Here, developers will be able to tell their stories, their motivations for creating the add-on, and can spell out what's ahead on the add-on's future roadmap. These new informational pages should help end users determine whether or not the add-on is worth supporting via a financial contribution.

Benefits to Firefox Users

As any regular Firefox user knows, one of the worst things about the Firefox upgrade cycle is that sinking feeling you get when you discover that your favorite extension no longer works with the most recent update to the browser. Unfortunately, this problem is far too common since unpaid developers often don't have the time or energy to continue upgrading their code with each new browser release. This leads to slews of abandoned extensions, forcing users to search for alternatives or give up on having that particular functionality entirely. Sadly, many extensions in the ecosystem are one-of-a-kind, so when one is no longer updated, there just isn't a suitable replacement to be found. Hopefully the new influx of financial support for the developer community will make this less of a problem in the future.

Not only is the Contributions program good for the developers and the end users, it's good for Mozilla, too - especially in this new age of browser wars. The company knows that, for many users, the main reason they run Firefox instead of one of the other browsers out there is for the extensions they've become attached to. If those extensions were to become out-of-date and abandoned, users would have less reason to stick around. At the end of the day, Contributions looks like a win-win-win...except, of course, for the cheap users who will now have to suffer a little twinge of guilt when downloading a new add-on.

We first reviewed Glubble's browser plugin in 2007 (we called it 'impressive' back then) and we also took a closer look at the service's web offering in late 2008. We really liked the service in its earlier iterations, and since then, it has only become better. For a more detailed look at Glubble's features, please have a look at our earlier reviews.

Timeline

Alexander van Elsas, Glubble's CEO, gave us a demo of the service last week and he was clearly proud of the new timeline feature. While a lot of photo sharing services have moved towards organizing photos based on events, Glubble decided to go with a strict chronological order. The top of the page features a calendar, where you can pick a date, and the second row then features thumbnails from the four preceding and following days.

The timeline isn't quite as fancy as thisMoment's similar feature, but then, thisMoment, which came out of beta this week, is targeting a different audience. Glubble, however, does a great job at keeping things simple - an important aspect for a site that doesn't target cutting-edge users but wants to be inclusive even to novices on the web.

New CEO, New Funding

In addition to these new features, Glubble also announced that it received $1 million in a new funding round. With Alexander van Elsas, the company now also has a new CEO. Van Elsas used to be Glubble's COO, and takes over from Willem-Jan Schutte, one of Glubble's founders, who will remain on the non-executive board.