Add-ons behaving badly: the challenges of policing the Firefox ecosystem..

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Add-ons behaving badly: the challenges of policing the Firefox ecosystem

By Ryan Paul | Published about 3 hours ago

Firefox is frustrated with misbehaving add-ons

Firefox's powerful add-on system is arguably one of the browser's best features, but it is also occasionally a source of problems for Mozilla.

Policing the add-on ecosystem to ensure that third-party code doesn't degrade the quality of the Firefox user experience is a major challenge. It's a problem across the ecosystem of web browsers, and some vendors, like Microsoft with its upcoming Metro version of Internet Explorer, don't allow third-party plugins at all. In contrast, Firefox users have a sea of add-ons at their disposal, but there is danger lurking below the surface.

The problem is being compounded by external software that hijacks browser settings and circumvents mechanisms that the browser uses to protect users from intrusive add-ons. Mozilla's Michael Verdi wrote a blog post last week drawing attention to the issue and calling out some questionable behavior observed in Ask's browser toolbar.

SOURCE: Read complete story at http://arstechnica.c...x-ecosystem.ars

Steve