Last week, Mozilla announced the development of an addon designed to implement social networking features within its popular Firefox web browser. The company has released an early prototype of the feature, named The Coop, so users can get an initial preview of what’s to come.

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Currently, Facebook is the only social network involved in the project, so MySpace users are out of luck for now. The interface is still pretty crude as well. In The Coop’s sidebar, the only visible items are the photos of your Facebook contacts, along with sharing icons that are currently disabled.

Sharing is functional, however, if you drag links, tabs, images or other content onto a particular contact’s photo within the sidebar.

Ryan Paul at Ars Technica gives his rundown of the impact that The Coop could have:

I often find myself saving links to share with friends, and The Coop’s simple drag-and-drop interface makes that easy. With sufficient support for additional social networking services and a more complete interface, The Coop could be come very useful. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are amongst some of the most heavily trafficked web sites on the Internet.

For many of the youngest technology enthusiasts, social networking sites provide a nexus for communication and social interaction. As these services continue to increase in relevance, integrated browser support will become a compelling and desirable feature.

News of these social features has been met with mixed reviews from the vocal members of the Firefox community. Users who are enthusiastic about social networking see the move as a boon for the browser, while those opposed to the mandatory inclusion point out that existing performance issues should be addressed before any new pre-bundled features are added.

Requests for comment from both Mozilla and Facebook have gone unanswered at the time of publication.