Ubiquity is an experimental Firefox extension developed by Mozilla Labs that extends the browser user interface with a context-sensitive command system. The latest version of the extension already includes a lot of really useful capabilities, but we could see some even more impressive features arrive soon.

In a blog entry today, Mozilla's Aza Raskin revealed plans for building a lightweight browser-based photo editor that will be accessible through Ubiquity. Jacob Seidelin, the developer behind the Pixastic JavaScript image processing library, will be leading the effort. He plans to begin work on the project next month.

Raskin has created several mockups that demonstrate user interface concepts, partially inspired by Adobe Lightroom, that could potentially be adopted for the photo editor.

"The open Web has no good way to edit images. There are tools like Picnic, Sumo, and Aviary, but they all revolve around proprietary tools and destination sites," Raskin wrote in his blog entry. "Making graphical edits is a fundamental action that should be available anywhere you see an image on the web."

Integrating the feature into Ubiquity will, as the name of the browser extension suggests, make it a ubiquitous part of the Web experience. He also says that the feature could potentially be deployed separately as a stand-alone Firefox add-on.

Further reading