Since their launch last year, users have created more than 56,000 collections of add-ons. Collections and user reviews are the two ways in which everyday users can contribute content to the add-ons site.
I’ve been thinking about ways to improve collections since last year, especially as many other sites now support similar groups of content. Facebook has groups of friends, Twitter has lists of followers, Youtube has playlists of videos, and we have collections of add-ons. We’re a bit different though: collections were designed primarily as a sharing vehicle, which is why we have a public directory listing them when other sites don’t.
But one thing I really love about others’ list features is their simplicity of creation and management. We’re well underway in rewriting addons.mozilla.org in Django, so now is the perfect time to make some improvements to the feature as we rewrite it for the new site. With the goals of making collections easier to create and manage, using them to power other features across the site, and making them more personal, here are a few changes in store for collections in the coming months.
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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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Last night we released AMO 5.0.6, which introduced collections, a new homepage, and a new design for the site. This was a huge project that first started about a year ago with the idea of add-on “feeds” and a codename of Project Bandwagon.
It’s incredibly exciting to see people actually calling collections “fun”, and making over 3000 in less than 24 hours since the feature was launched.
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Since moving to California, I’ve found myself listening to the radio a lot more than in previous years. I think this is largely because my favorite station here plays a lot more of the music I like and has a lot of new artists and songs that I haven’t heard before. Music and Firefox add-ons have a lot in common. Both are ways of expressing yourself and customizing your lifestyle. Both are made by professionals, but also by students, hobbyists, and anyone with a passion for their idea. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way for me to discover relevant new add-ons as easily as I discover new music?
In November, we launched Fashion Your Firefox, which was a collection of add-ons that we felt were great for a novice user just getting started with customizing their browser. Now, we’d like to take it a step further and let anyone create their own collection of add-ons that can be shared with their friends, posted on blogs, and featured on the Firefox Add-ons website.
Just as a DJ selects which songs to play and comment on, we want to let anyone create a list of add-ons on any topic — whether it’s “Justin’s Must-have Firefox Extensions”, “David’s Favorite Travel Add-ons”, or “Nicole’s St. Patrick’s Day Themes”. These user-created collections would appear in a directory alongside collections created by Mozilla. We’re interested in what sorts of collections people would create, and what collections you’d like to see in the directory. Please share your ideas with us in the comments.
We’re very excited about this idea and hope that it will improve add-on discovery, increase user involvement with add-ons, improve the stickiness of the add-ons website, and make add-ons more social. If you’re interested in learning more about the project, you can visit our project wiki.