FoxyTunes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FoxyTunes was a browser extension allowing control of media players from the web browser window.[1] The company that developed FoxyTunes was bought by Yahoo! in 2008, and FoxyTunes was closed in 2013.
| FoxyTunes | |
|---|---|
| Developers | Alex Sirota, Yahoo! Inc. |
| Stable release | 4.3.6
/ March 22, 2012 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Platform | Mozilla Firefox/SeaMonkey/Thunderbird, and Internet Explorer |
| Type | Web browser, Music, Media player |
| License | Freeware, Proprietary |
History
In 2004 computer science graduate student Alex Sirota was making Foxytunes available for free and accepting donations.[2] The company behind Foxytunes was founded in 2005 by Vitaly and Alex Sirota with private investors[3] and subsequently acquired by Yahoo! on February 4, 2008, for what was understood to be over US$30,000,000, Yahoo! retaining the Foxytunes branding. On June 28, 2013, Yahoo! announced FoxyTunes's closure, scheduled for July 1, 2013.[4][5] At its peak FoxyTunes was available in over 30 languages.[6]
Software
Foxytunes was controlled by a toolbar interface which was installed on the web browser.[1]
Supported web browsers and other applications included Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer,[7] SeaMonkey, Mozilla Application Suite, Flock and Mozilla Thunderbird.[8] The extension supported the normal media player functions and displayed currently playing track information. In 2007 the FoxyTunes Planet rich media front page was launched.[9] Additionally, the extension allowed searching various Web sites to get images, lyrics, videos, biographies etc. related to the music being played.[1][10][11]
The presentation of the toolbar interface could be altered by a skin extension. This allowed a user to select from alternative presentations of the toolbar which had alternative characteristics of colors, layout, size and collapsed state.[12]
Supported players
FoxyTunes supported more than 30 desktop and web-based media players on a diverse variety of platforms.[1][11]
- Microsoft Windows[citation needed]
- Apollo media player
- The Core Media Player
- dBpoweramp Audio Player:[13]
- foobar2000
- iTunes[14]
- JetAudio[14]
- JRiver Media Center
- Last.fm
- MediaMonkey
- Media Player Classic
- musikCube
- Musicmatch Jukebox[14]
- Spotify
- Songbird
- Sonique[13]
- Quintessential Player
- Pandora
- RealPlayer
- UltraPlayer
- VLC media player
- Winamp
- Windows Media Player[14]
- Yahoo! Music Jukebox / Yahoo! Music Engine[14]
- Linux systems
- [1]
- XMMS
- Beep Media Player
- Noatun
- JuK
- Amarok
- Music Player Daemon
- Rhythmbox
- Mac OS X
- [15]
- Online services[16]
- Yahoo! News
- Yahoo! Music
- Twitter with TwittyTunes[17][18]
Reception
FoxyTunes Version 1.0 was reviewed in 2004 by ExtremeTech,[19] in 2005 by Ynet,[13] by Tony Hoffman in "The Best Free Software (2007)" in PCMag[20] and Preston Gralla in PCWorld.[8] It was Claudine Beaumont's favourite in her 2008 article "Firefox 3: Top ten extensions" in The Telegraph.[21] Haaretz reported in 2008 that it had been downloaded by 8 million users.[3] It was reviewed in 2009 by download.com[7] and Softpedia.[17] In 2010 in How-To Geek.[22] In 2011 by Chris Wiles at TechAdvisor[23]/Macworld,[24] and Ghacks.[25]