Create an HTTP facility (transport, not rendering) for desktop apps that shares cache and cookies with the browser -- basically export the firefox http engine. A dbus-exported [http://svn.mugshot.org/dumbhippo/trunk/client/linux/src/hippo-dbus-http.c proof-of-concept] exists which which shows some basic structure. A better solution would support more http features, avoid the dbus daemon for large files, and use Firefox instead of libcurl. One challenge is making this work when Firefox is not running. Resources: RH online desktop team.

Alter [http://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/The_Coop The Coop] experimental extension so it uses generic API instead of Facebook specifically; put the generic API in the "desktop data engine" also used by [http://live.gnome.org/OnlineDesktop/Sidebar BigBoard] (and hopefully other desktop apps in the future). Resources: RH online desktop team.