Advice Request A grim outlook on the future of browser add-ons

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

A grim outlook on the future of browser add-ons

A few days ago Mozilla announced the release of their new Android browser. This release, dubbed “Firefox Daylight,” is supposed to achieve nothing less than to “revolutionize mobile browsing.” And that also goes for browser extensions of course:

Last but not least, we revamped the extensions experience. We know that add-ons play an important role for many Firefox users and we want to make sure to offer them the best possible experience when starting to use our newest Android browsing app. We’re kicking it off with the top 9 add-ons for enhanced privacy and user experience from our Recommended Extensions program.

What this text carefully avoids stating directly: that’s the only nine (as in: single-digit 9) add-ons which you will be able to install on Firefox for Android now. After being able to use thousands of add-ons before, this feels like a significant downgrade. Particularly given that there appears to be no technical reason why none of the other add-ons are allowed any more, it being merely a policy decision. I already verified that my add-ons can still run on Firefox for Android but aren’t allowed to, same should be true for the majority of other add-ons.

Contents

• Why would Mozilla kill mobile add-ons?
• But won’t Mozilla add more add-ons later?
• Isn’t the state of affairs much better on the desktop?
• Where is add-on support on desktop going?
• Conclusions

Full story here:

A grim outlook on the future of browser add-ons

Mozilla limiting users’ choice to 9 add-ons on mobile is only the latest development. Add-on support is degrading across all browsers and will continue to do so.

palant.info

 

[oldschool]

It appears that Google's dominance is already having effects that some observers warned of, with Mozilla's downsizing and other developments. Above post goes hand-in-hand with this post:

WebBundles Harmful to Content Blocking, Security Tools, and the Open Web (Standards Updates #2)

In a Nutshell ... Google is proposing a new standard called WebBundles. This standard allows websites to “bundle” resources together, and will make it impossible for browsers to reason about sub-resources by URL. This threatens to change the Web from a hyperlinked collection of resources (that...

malwaretips.com

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I hope Microsoft can have some influence on that as they commit a lot to chromium nowadays.
Brave unfortunately is too small to have any influence, but maybe will be left as the only option for a secure and private browser...
Time will tell.

 

[ForgottenSeer 85179]

On the other side this mean less extension madness on user side. No malicious or spying extensions anymore.
I guess that is the reason why the whole story start.

And also in the end browser configs are less unique do to different extensions