Add-ons are one of Firefox’s best features, and no matter which of the thousands you’ve tried, there’s one thing they all share: the Add-ons Manager. You know, this thing:
It’s where add-ons can be installed, disabled, removed, searched, and oftentimes tweaked. It’s used quite a lot, and is how many Firefox users discover the existence of add-ons. It has largely remained the same for a number of years, with the addition of the “Get Add-ons” pane in Firefox 3 that shows several recommended add-ons and allows for searching the Firefox Add-ons gallery for new add-ons. Approximately 20% of add-on downloads come directly from the Add-ons Manager, mostly from the recommended add-ons.
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With almost 2 billion downloads, add-ons have proven to be a huge part of Firefox’s growth and popularity over the last 5 years. As Firefox continues to be adopted by non-technical, mainstream users, the security and consumer experience of installing third party add-ons becomes increasingly more important. It’s with these users in mind that I propose some major changes to the way add-ons are submitted and distributed through Mozilla’s official add-ons gallery.
First, some background
This month marks the three year anniversary of the “sandbox” review model being introduced on addons.mozilla.org. Veteran Mozilla contributors and add-on fans may remember what the process was like prior to the sandbox: add-ons were inaccessible until they were reviewed, new add-ons and updates were listed together in the same queue, and the quality of some of the reviewed add-ons was questionable.
The current add-on submission and review process was designed to surface unreviewed add-ons in a “sandbox” to testers who wanted to try them out and write reviews, while still keeping them far away from casual Firefox users just looking to customize their browser. We hoped this would alleviate developer frustration over long review times and raise the quality bar, as not every add-on would have to be “public” and reviewed in order to be distributed on the site. In its original incarnation, the sandbox excelled at keeping untested add-ons from everyday users, but was found lacking in usability for advanced users: no one could figure out the process of signing up for an account and then opting in to sandbox access in order to see the unreviewed add-ons.
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A little over four years ago I created my first Firefox add-on. Things were different back then: there were only around 2,000 extensions (we didn’t call them add-ons), addons.mozilla.org was update.mozilla.org, and add-on developers always seemed to respect their users’ privacy and choices without the need for Mozilla to get involved in telling developers what they can and can’t do.
Times have changed, and last April, the add-ons team came up with a policy statement about respecting the choices a user has made, not changing defaults unless the user would expect that change, and not interfering with other add-ons. We hadn’t named the policy, so when it came time to blog about it, I read through it trying to think of a name that summarized our position. The result was the oft-cited “No Surprises” policy, now officially adopted after some slight modifications.
Frankly, I am still surprised on a weekly basis by the behavior of some add-ons and companies targeting add-ons. This recent flurry of issues we’re dealing with has left me wondering, “what’s so different between add-ons just a few years ago and now?” Money, of course.
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Since the launch of collections last year, one of the most common feature requests AMO gets is the ability to install all or some of the add-ons in a collection at the same time. There’s really only one thing that has held us back from offering this functionality, but unfortunately it’s not something easily overcome: conflicting first-run experiences.
These days, almost every add-on has some sort of first-run experience, whether it’s a new tab that’s opened, a sidebar, a wizard, or (worst of all) a modal dialog. When several add-ons are installed at the same time, these elements all fight for attention, often in confusing and unexpected ways. I wrote a post on this some time ago that showed an example of what havoc can be wreaked with only 3-4 add-ons, as well as some suggestions on how developers can improve this area.
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Just a few hours ago we launched a new website for Firefox add-ons to help folks looking to customize their browser discover new add-ons they might like. Whether you’re just starting to try out add-ons or have been using them for years, Rock Your Firefox will feature several top add-on reviews each week to help you find your next favorite.
The Firefox Add-ons site has thousands of add-ons, which is great when you already have an idea of what you’re looking for. But for a user just trying add-ons for the first time who wants to find a top-notch, safe, useful add-on and not be overwhelmed with tons of choices, Rock Your Firefox steps in to highlight great add-ons in small doses.
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