Mozilla announced today that it is shutting down two of its services: Pocket, a long-standing bookmarking and reading service, and Fakespot, a recent acquisition, that can detect fake reviews of products online.
Pocket started out as an independent “read it later” service back in 2007. It allowed users to save bookmarks to web resources to keep track of everything from a central location. Mozilla acquired Pocket in 2017 and integrated it in Firefox.
Pocket users have until October 8, 2025 to export their data. The service will enter export-only mode on July 8, 2025 and you may use the service normally until then. All user data will be deleted permanently after October 8. The Pocket extension and mobile apps will also be shut down.
Why is Mozilla shutting down Pocket? Mozilla says that “the way people use the web has evolved” and that it made the decision to channel its resources “into projects that better match” the browsing habits and online needs of this evolved user type.
Paying subscribers will get a partial refund that is based on the time left in a subscription after July 8.
You can check out this support article for details.
Fakespot
The second service that is axed is Fakespot. It started out as an independent service to distinguish fake reviews and ratings of products online from legitimate ones.
Mozilla acquired Fakespot in 2023 and integrated Review Checker into Firefox. This tool is shutting down on June 10th, 2025.
Closing Words
I have to admit that I never warmed to Pocket. While I tried the service, especially in the early days, I never found it particularly useful for my use cases. I know users who have used it for over a decade.
Some were disappointed by some of the decisions that Mozilla made regarding Pocket. Search, for example, some said, got a whole lot worse years ago making Pocket less of a useful tool in the process.
Mozilla does not say, but it is probably throwing dead weight over the board to become leaner and be better prepared for the potential Google breakup and end of the search deal with Google.
Sounds like Mozilla/Firefox–any FF feature with a meaningful existence and genuine usefulness that takes time to maintain, they abandon after a long-term relationship without the business acumen needed to sell the service [or rethink the service and make it a fountain of revenue]; they’d rather shut it down and call it “focusing on Firefox.” Brainless. Maybe the announcement is considered a “for sale” signal.
“Pocket did more than this and leaned into long-form journalism and literary writing. The site’s “Best of 2020″ won a Webby award, and it regularly curated collections on a range of topics.”
“As we wind them [Pocket and Fakespot] down, we’re looking ahead to focusing on new Firefox features that people need most. This shift allows us to shape the next era of the internet—with tools like vertical tabs, smart search and more AI-powered features on the way.”
https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2017/02/mozilla-acquires-pocket/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/mozilla-is-killing-its-pocket-and-fakespot-services-to-focus-on-firefox/
Someone does have some insight: Kevin Rose–
https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/digg-founder-kevin-rose-offers-to-buy-pocket-from-mozilla/
In addition to some excellent articles from sources like “The Atlantic,” what I really liked was the extension “In My Pocket.” Great bookmarking tool.
Greeted with Mozilla’s “See you later” email this morning, I switched to Raindrop.io and imported the data from Pocket.
Why was “Read It Later” acquired? “
We believe that the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content is key to keeping the internet healthy by fighting against the rising tide of centralization and walled gardens. Pocket provides people with the tools they need to engage with and share content on their own terms, independent of hardware platform or content silo, for a safer, more empowered and independent online experience.” – Chris Beard, Mozilla CEO
All I know about ‘pocket’ is it is one of those icons I have to remove when I setup a browser.
I read a bit about fakespot, didn’t make sense to me. You don’t trust the reviews but your going to trust a stranger to tell you which reviews to trust? /dogheadtilt
So Mozilla is shutting down Fakespot. Does that mean it can no longer differentiate between what is real and what is fake, or maybe they’re saying that since everything is fake, there’s no point in maintaining it anymore.
Maybe Mozilla should just concentrate in enhancing Firefox and stop saddling it with additions nobody wants. Leave the latter to the addons manager since at least those are tried and tested and useful.
Majority of Amazon reviews are fakes. Even I had “offers” to leave “positive” product reviews for some money (not much). I only read negative (3/5 or lower) reviews on Amazon products. If there are reported consistent problems between negative reviews, I would not buy even if product has 4.7/5.0 score with hundreds of positive reviews.
I would not go that far, but Amazon surely has a problem with fake reviews. I always read reviews, the newest especially, as they may represent a better picture as legitimate users start to buy a product and leave reviews.
Other than that, I also look at weighted reviews more, those that give between 2 and 4 points on Amazon.
@TeIV: exactly. Just give me a lean, secure browser. I’ll customize it myself.