New Mozilla Addons is Perfect… Almost!
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Mozilla has finally lifted the curtains off Mozilla Addons that has a completely has a shiny new look and is simply amazing at the first sight. I’ve played around with the new site and it is a vast improvement over the previous version.
The most important achievement is that Mozilla Addons is now available in 24 languages, but it is another thing that I won’t be needing them. The newest addition into the site is the Sandbox feature wherein the addons are in sort of beta until Mozilla approves them. The nice thing is that when you search for addons, the addons in the sandbox are marked with a experimental tag. But there’s a catch, you still need to login to be able to download addons in the sandbox.
Well there are two things that disappoint me with the new addons site. The first is that searching isn’t that easy. Say if you searched for wikipedia select the search tools category, you’ll be presented with addons that belong to all the other categories as well. Also there is no way to group the results in a particular fashion.
The other thing is that from now on the site automatically detects the version of Firefox you are using and you can install only those addons that are compatible with your version of Firefox. Surely Mozilla is trying to make things easier for end users, but then we have to depend on plugin authors to test their addons on different versions. This isn’t a good idea, atleast there should be an option for power users to modify this behavior to download and test addons not compatible with the current version of Firefox.
I’m currently using Firefox beta 3 and there are many addons that I know work with Firefox 3 but I can’t install them. Mozilla needs to work a little bit more on Sandbox and the search features and I’m sure the new site will be a hit with users worldwide..
What do you think about the new Mozilla Addons site?
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
Nick I
The title says it all! Almost perfect!!
Mar 30th, 2008
Asa Dotzler
click the “Complete Version History” link and you can install any addon version you want into any Firefox version you want.
Mar 30th, 2008
Morbus
Why aren’t you using beta 4? I’m using beta 5 rc2, but that’s me. About the incompatible addons, if you look at the version history page you are able to download them no matter what. Still, it’s a pain in the ass.
I don’t like the new site. Too Web2.0y…
Mar 31st, 2008
Luke
For power users, add a new Boolean to about:config of “extensions.checkCompatibility” with a value of “False”. This disables the compatibility check, and thus allows you to install addons to your heart’s content.
I am quite okay with Mozilla turning this off by default as it shouldn’t necessarily be up to your average user to decide whether the cost/benefit of installing a potentially hazardous addon is worthwhile.
I am undecided as to whether a checkbox, or something of that nature, should be visible in the immediate interface; I guess Mozilla could simply preface a warning upon clicking the checkbox like the one that is displayed when a user visits “about:config”.
Apr 2nd, 2008
Nemo Inis
Almost perfect??? I try to search for a search engine, so I type its name in the search box and then… where’s the “search” button?? oh, there’s none, so now I’ve got to use the keyboard to press return. Wait… it found nothing (though I know that engine exists) but it doesn’t even tell me. Maybe if I select “search engines” from the “within” list? Wait… there’s no entry for search engines in that list. Maybe I’m on the wrong page? Wait… this is the page I was directed to when I click on “Get More Search Engines” in Firefox.
Maybe “almost perfect” is an exaggeration. Maybe “crappy design” is closer to the mark…
Apr 12th, 2008
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