Mozilla has announced that beginning with Firefox 8, all add-ons installed by other software will be blocked, until the user approves them. This is aimed at correcting the problem where browser extensions are automatically installed or installed on accident. This is to “return control back to the user.”
“While some of these applications seek the user’s permission beforehand, others install add-ons into Firefox without checking to make sure the user actually wants them,” Mozilla stated in a blog post.
Apparently, software-bundled extensions have been a problem for Firefox users. Mozilla gives an example with a Skype extension that caused a high number of browsers to crash. Not only that, but extensions can cause the browser to lag. “Most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons,” Mozilla added.
Firefox 8 will automatically detect the installed add-on and disable it until the user agrees to continue its installation. “Users that want the functionality provided by a third-party-installed add-on can easily allow the installation, while users who don’t can cancel or ignore the prompt.”
Mozilla is working on an accelerated release date for its Firefox browser which basically means we will see a new version of Firefox every six weeks. To put things in perspective, Mozilla released Firefox 4 on March 21st and Firefox 5 on June 18th. Mozilla plans to release Firefox 7 on September 27th. Mozilla is currently on schedule to release Firefox 6 on August 16th.
