My first thought too. Firefox seems to be cramming stuff in as default recently that's really peripheral; strikes me we're approaching that point in the cycle where a new streamlined offering comes along and people start jumping ship to that. The place where Firefox started as a simple fast web browser without the bells and whistles.

The irony with your comment is that this is exactly one of the purposes of Test Pilot - to give new features a trial run rather than just "cramming stuff in as default".

It's an opt-in experiment, and at the end it's possible to a) be rolled in as a feature, b) spun off as an optional add-on, c) scrapped entirely.

Oh yeah, or d) taken back to the drawing board & re-engineered for another go-round.

I've taken part in Test Pilot, so I'm aware of how it works. Hence the wording of my comment that it was my initial reaction.

The idea that it's appropriate as a plugin is in anticipation that they'd decide to integrate it like hello and pocket.

It's a feeling, there are all sorts of different browser efforts, FF just feels like we're getting to a point where it is drifting closer to the other browsers and getting heavier. YMMV.

Just so this is clear: This is not a new feature in Firefox. They are just giving people a way to test it and to give feedback. Depending on the response, it might then become a feature, but for now it's only a proposition.

As TFA says, it is a browser plugin.

This is an opt-in experiment in an opt in program.

There are many, many broken links on the web and it seems like this feature could get a lot of use.

For what it's worth, that is one of the proposed exit plans for experiments in Test Pilot. If it doesn't look like it would succeed as a built-in feature, spinning it off as an add-on is a possibility if it has enough support from developers & users to maintain it that way.