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.
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]