Mozilla today is best known as a browser vendor, but one day it could be known as a Web services vendor, too. That's thanks to a services backend that has at its heart a Mozilla Labs project called Weave.

The project is an effort to enable users to synchronize and save data on Mozilla infrastructure. Mozilla introduced Weave in late 2007 and has had three big releases -- versions 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3.

Downloads and usage of the client software, which is available as a browser add-on called Weave Sync, remain relatively modest. Dan Mills, Mozilla Weave lead told InternetNews.com that Weave has had over 30,000 downloads, and around 6,000 to 7,000 daily users.

Still, ambitions remain high. Weave represents a new model for Mozilla, where users rely on Mozilla for more than just a browser interface, but for data as well. In some ways, the effort can be seen as competitive with social bookmarking sites like Delicious, though the overall goal for Weave is intended to be broader than just bookmarks.

"Weave is a broad project with many moving parts," Mills explained. "Our focus has been to develop the Weave Sync client and server architecture, to make it scalable and fast, and getting the core down to a size that can fit on handheld devices. Going forward, our challenge will be to build upon this core to increase our users' ability to connect and share information with the rest of the Web."

That effort took a step forward with the Weave 0.3 release in late March, in which Mozilla added support for synchronization across both mobile and desktop browsers.

"The 0.3 release was a big milestone for the Weave project," Mills said. "Using the experience we gained from the Weave 0.1 and 0.2 releases, we redesigned and rewrote several key components of the Weave architecture."