mr_wiggles
02-15-07, 02:37 AM
Plug-ins, add-ons, extensions -- call them what you will. They are the reason Firefox is the browser of choice among web-savvy users.
Add-ons exist for other popular web browsers such as Opera, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and Apple's Safari. But unlike those other browsers, Firefox is open-source, and that has led to the formation of an extremely active development community.
On Monday, The Mozilla Corporation, which oversees the development of all things Firefox, is relaunching the Firefox add-ons community site. With the redesign, the organization hopes to enhance the ability of add-on developers to collaborate and test each other's creations.
We recently sat down with Mozilla technology strategist Mike Shaver, who explained the reasoning behind the site's overhaul. He hopes the enhancements will not only help developers shepherd their add-ons from prototype to finished product, but also make it easier for new users to discover new extensions, thereby adding personal value to the impersonal web.
Wired News: So, why a site relaunch now?
Mike Shaver: The add-ons site has organically grown since 2000, when it was set up for a couple dozen add-ons. When we released Firefox 2, we had 2,500 or so. There were some issues of scale that we needed to address, some of which had to do with software and performance, but most of which had to do with navigation and helping users find the add-ons they really want.
As Firefox's success continues, more users who aren't as technically savvy are discovering Firefox and Firefox add-ons. So we really wanted to raise the bar for how add-ons are profiled on the site -- what their installation experience is like and how polished they are.
The most significant improvement for the Firefox program at large is that the site will be fully localized -- we've got eight languages at launch, but we're expecting to get quite a few more languages in that first week as people discover that they can contribute to the localization efforts.
We're also trying to broaden the review and testing process for add-ons as they come in. Historically, we've had a linear approval model. There was a small group of people who looked at every add-on as it was submitted. Again, that worked really well when there were only a few dozen add-ons, but when you're getting 30 or 40 submissions a day, you get a big backlog.
Now, anybody can see the add-ons that haven't been released yet by browsing the waiting area -- we call it the Sandbox -- and write reviews of them that we'll look at to help us decide if the add-on is ready to go out into the public.
WN: Are all of those reviews going to be public?
MS: When you write a review of a public add-on, your review is public. When you write a review in the Sandbox, we'll decide which reviews are going to be published with the add-on when it goes public.
WN: Where have you seen the strongest growth in add-ons? Has it been ad blockers, productivity helpers and tools to manipulate content, or has it been more cutesy add-ons like sports team skins and colorful themes?
MS: We've seen a real breadth of growth. One area where we've seen a lot of growth is the integration of data that's already on the web into your browser. There's an experimental extension built by a developer under the Mozilla Labs program called Operator that's been getting a lot of attention. It pulls microformatted data out of web pages and sends them to your address book if it's a person or your calendar if it's an event, all without the usual copy-and-paste tedium. The sort of add-on that lets people interact with a given page more richly has been a big piece of our growth.
Story continued on Page 2 ยป
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/software/0,72695-0.html?tw=rss.index
Add-ons exist for other popular web browsers such as Opera, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and Apple's Safari. But unlike those other browsers, Firefox is open-source, and that has led to the formation of an extremely active development community.
On Monday, The Mozilla Corporation, which oversees the development of all things Firefox, is relaunching the Firefox add-ons community site. With the redesign, the organization hopes to enhance the ability of add-on developers to collaborate and test each other's creations.
We recently sat down with Mozilla technology strategist Mike Shaver, who explained the reasoning behind the site's overhaul. He hopes the enhancements will not only help developers shepherd their add-ons from prototype to finished product, but also make it easier for new users to discover new extensions, thereby adding personal value to the impersonal web.
Wired News: So, why a site relaunch now?
Mike Shaver: The add-ons site has organically grown since 2000, when it was set up for a couple dozen add-ons. When we released Firefox 2, we had 2,500 or so. There were some issues of scale that we needed to address, some of which had to do with software and performance, but most of which had to do with navigation and helping users find the add-ons they really want.
As Firefox's success continues, more users who aren't as technically savvy are discovering Firefox and Firefox add-ons. So we really wanted to raise the bar for how add-ons are profiled on the site -- what their installation experience is like and how polished they are.
The most significant improvement for the Firefox program at large is that the site will be fully localized -- we've got eight languages at launch, but we're expecting to get quite a few more languages in that first week as people discover that they can contribute to the localization efforts.
We're also trying to broaden the review and testing process for add-ons as they come in. Historically, we've had a linear approval model. There was a small group of people who looked at every add-on as it was submitted. Again, that worked really well when there were only a few dozen add-ons, but when you're getting 30 or 40 submissions a day, you get a big backlog.
Now, anybody can see the add-ons that haven't been released yet by browsing the waiting area -- we call it the Sandbox -- and write reviews of them that we'll look at to help us decide if the add-on is ready to go out into the public.
WN: Are all of those reviews going to be public?
MS: When you write a review of a public add-on, your review is public. When you write a review in the Sandbox, we'll decide which reviews are going to be published with the add-on when it goes public.
WN: Where have you seen the strongest growth in add-ons? Has it been ad blockers, productivity helpers and tools to manipulate content, or has it been more cutesy add-ons like sports team skins and colorful themes?
MS: We've seen a real breadth of growth. One area where we've seen a lot of growth is the integration of data that's already on the web into your browser. There's an experimental extension built by a developer under the Mozilla Labs program called Operator that's been getting a lot of attention. It pulls microformatted data out of web pages and sends them to your address book if it's a person or your calendar if it's an event, all without the usual copy-and-paste tedium. The sort of add-on that lets people interact with a given page more richly has been a big piece of our growth.
Story continued on Page 2 ยป
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/software/0,72695-0.html?tw=rss.index