Firefox Add-ons have long been a major reason of user devotion and now Mozilla has taken Add-ons to the next level with a major upgrade. The Firefox Add-Ons system has been redesigned with a focus on helping users find and share Add-ons that make their browser experience better. The most significant improvements are the introduction of Add-on Collections and the Add-on Collector extension.
The Firefox Add-on webpage is now heralding a new section called Add-on Collections. Collections are lists of related Add-ons based on function or interest.The Mozilla team kick started collections by creating lists for Web Developers, Social Media enthusiasts, and even a Traveler’s pack. Although Collections may be the best way to discover new Add-ons it is also an outstanding medium for sharing your favorite collections. Anyone with a free Mozilla account can create a collection so there is already a well populated list of collections from a variety of authors. Mozilla has simply implemented a fantastic social recommendation system for Add-ons.
The other major change comes in the form of a new extension, Add-on Collector. The Collector offers a whole new way to manage, discover, and share Add-on collections from within the browser. The extension displays any favorited collections in the Collection Directory (a new area in the Add-ons Manager) and enables publishing Add-ons to a collection directly from your plugin list. The Add-on collector will quickly become a favorite of any Add-on’s fan.
Take the time today to make your browsing experience better and visit Firefox Add-ons Collections and install the Add-on Collector. If you want a starting place check out my Essential Extensions Collection.
This doesn’t solve any of real problems with extensions.
First. There’s no extension dependencies. Collections can help but they’re not the real solutions for that. For example, there are a lot of Firebug extensions which are not useful at all without installed Firebug.
Second. Extensions installation requires restart. People who had used Windows for a while know what a pain is restart.
So I’m not sure that collections are a solution to anything.
Che, Thanks for the comment.
Concerning dependencies the vast majority of Add-ons have no dependencies. Therefore I see no reason for Firefox to try to incorporate this almost non-existent feature into their overall extensions system. Additionally the few plugins that require extensions usually do a great job of documenting and linking to those extensions. Using your example of Firebug their website lists 20+ extensions. I see this as a function of the individual developers not Mozilla.
I agree that the restarts are unsavory but Firefox allows you to delay the restart and it will restore most of your session. So they’ve made reopening the browser as painless as possible.
Finally, I think Collections and Collector solve the exact problem that Mozilla intended for them to solve, namely helping people discover new extensions and share their favorites.
Thank you very much for reading and taking the time to comment.
Keith
@tsudo on Twitter