FoxyTunes was a

browser extension A browser extension is a small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web ...

allowing control of media players from the

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

window. The company that developed FoxyTunes was bought by

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...

in 2008, and FoxyTunes was closed in 2013.

History

In 2004 computer science graduate student Alex Sirota was making Foxytunes available for free and accepting donations. The company behind Foxytunes was founded in 2005 by Vitaly and Alex Sirota with private investors and subsequently acquired by Yahoo! on February 4, 2008, for what was understood to be over , Yahoo! retaining the Foxytunes branding. On June 28, 2013, Yahoo! announced FoxyTunes's closure, scheduled for July 1, 2013. At its peak FoxyTunes was available in over 30 languages.

Software

Foxytunes was controlled by a toolbar interface which was installed on the web browser. Supported web browsers and other applications included

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current an ...

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems (in ...

, SeaMonkey,

Mozilla Application Suite The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite) is a discontinued cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition ...

, Flock and

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source cross-platform email client, personal information manager, news client, RSS and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation and operated by subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation. The projec ...

. 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. Additionally, the extension allowed searching various Web sites to get images, lyrics, videos, biographies etc. related to the music being played. 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.

Supported players

FoxyTunes supported more than 30 desktop and web-based media players on a diverse variety of platforms. ;Microsoft Windows: *Apollo media player *The Core Media Player *dBpoweramp Audio Player: *

foobar2000 foobar2000 (often abbreviated as fb2k or f2k) is a freeware audio player for Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android developed by Peter Pawłowski. It has a modular design, which provides user flexibility in configuration and customization. Stan ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

* JetAudio * JRiver Media Center *

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

* MediaMonkey * Media Player Classic * musikCube * Musicmatch Jukebox *

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

Songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

* Sonique *

Quintessential Player Quintessential Player (also called QMP and formerly QCD) was a freeware, multi-format media player developed by Paul Quinn. Quintessential Player began life in 1997 as a CD-only player for Windows, when it was known as Quintessential CD Player ...

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek language, Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions ...

* RealPlayer * UltraPlayer * VLC media player *

Winamp Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Radionomy in 2014. Since ve ...

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as ...

Yahoo! Music Jukebox Yahoo! Music Jukebox, formerly known as Yahoo! Music Engine, was a freeware music player released by Yahoo! in 2005 to compete with iTunes and Rhapsody in the digital music market. Developed side-by-side with MusicMatch Jukebox, another music p ...

/ Yahoo! Music Engine *

Zinf Zinf is a free audio player for Unix-like and Windows operating systems. Zinf is released under the GNU General Public License. Zinf is a continuation of the FreeAmp project and uses the same source code. Technical features Zinf can play soun ...

;Linux systems: * XMMS *Beep Media Player * Noatun *

JuK Juk may refer to: * JuK, software * Juk (food), Korean rice porridge * Juk language, a Mon–Khmer language spoken in Laos * Ukkusissat Heliport, in Greenland * Wapan language Wapan (Jukun Wapan) or Kororofa, also known as Wukari after the l ...

* Amarok * Music Player Daemon * Rhythmbox ;Mac OS X: *

;Online services *

Yahoo! News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds o ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

with TwittyTunes

Reception

FoxyTunes Version 1.0 was reviewed in 2004 by

ExtremeTech ExtremeTech is a technology weblog, launched in June 2001, which focuses on hardware, computer software, science and other technologies. Between 2003 and 2005, ExtremeTech was also a print magazine and the publisher of a popular series of how- ...

, in 2005 by

Ynet Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...

, by Tony Hoffman in "The Best Free Software (2007)" in ''

PCMag ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present ...

'' and Preston Gralla in ''

PCWorld ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...

''. It was Claudine Beaumont's favourite in her 2008 article "Firefox 3: Top ten extensions" in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

''. ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

'' reported in 2008 that it had been downloaded by 8 million users. It was reviewed in 2009 by download.com and

Softpedia Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts various downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. Website Softpedia hosts reviews written by its staff—each review in ...

. In 2010 in How-To Geek. In 2011 by Chris Wiles at '' TechAdvisor''/''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macin ...

'', and Ghacks.

References

External links

* *
Yahoo May Be Looking To Buy Israel's FoxyTunes

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Goi ...

{{Yahoo! Inc. Nonfree Firefox legacy extensions Yahoo! acquisitions Discontinued Yahoo! services Internet Explorer add-ons 2005 software 2005 establishments Proprietary cross-platform software Internet properties disestablished in 2013 Freeware