Add-ons

Collect some Collections

By DR ⋅ June 11, 2009 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Yesterday was a really great day for Mozilla Add-ons, with the re-launch of a new snazzy looking web home and some great new features that make discovering and sharing Add-ons much easier, and dare I say, addictive.  In a voice fit for your local FM station, Justin Scott walks you through a few videos about Collections to get you started.  And make sure to read his write-up about the launch.

I’ve been working with the Add-ons crew for a while and I’m really excited to see how consumer friendly and discoverable the site has become.   You can read more about Nick’s great writeup about the new AMO design here, but suffice it to say I think that it’s a big step forward for Add-ons.  Take a look at the homepage screenshots for a quick trip down Add-on memory lane (the AMO site during the Firefox 1, Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 eras) and I think you’ll agree how engaging the new site is for those familiar with add-ons, and how welcoming the experience is for someone who is new to the world of browser customization. Collections has evolved as well after receiving positive feedback last fall when we released the first iteration with Fashion Your Firefox, up until the present, with the full release of Collections.

I tried my first add-on four years ago, and it was a bit of an effort to sift through, with what was then many hundreds of add-ons.  Now with the redesigned site and the launch of Collections, I find myself having a great time exploring the thousands of new Collections of add-ons created in just a day since the program launch.  And (shameless plug alert), you can try out Rolo’s Blue Plate Special, a Collection of some of my favorite add-ons that developers and non-developers can enjoy.  It was really easy to create and fun to discover some new add-ons in the process.

Apps are all the rage these days, yet the Mozilla community has been creating imaginative, useful, and fun add-ons for years, and sharing those favorite add-ons with others through articles, blog posts, and word-of-mouth.  Type in “best Firefox add-ons” into any browser, and you’ll find hundreds of such lists.  Collections takes this social exchange, centers it on the AMO website, and gives users some great tools to allow people to share their favorites and new discoveries.  So get out there sharing and collecting, and tell us what you find!