Add-on is the Mozilla term for software modules that can be added to the Firefox web browser and related applications . Mozilla hosts them on its official add-on website .
31-633: Browser extensions are the primary type of add-on. In 2017, Mozilla enacted major changes to the application programming interface (API) for extensions in Firefox, replacing the long-standing XUL and XPCOM APIs with the WebExtensions API that is modeled after Google Chrome 's API. Thus add-ons that remain compatible with Firefox are now largely compatible with Chrome as well. As of January, 2024, there are more than 36,000 add-ons and over 495,000 themes available for Firefox. Starting with Firefox 57, only
62-502: A Chromium -based browser. (Chromium is Google's open-source project that serves as the functional core of Chrome and many other browsers.) Now that Edge has the same API as Chrome, extensions can be installed directly from the Chrome Web Store. In 2015, Mozilla announced that the long-standing XUL and XPCOM extension capabilities of Firefox would be replaced with a less-permissive API very similar to Chrome's. This change
93-723: A community of major web players and publishers to establish a MediaWiki wiki that seeks to document open web standards called the WebPlatform and WebPlatform Docs. In January 2013, Beihang University became the Chinese host. In 2022 the W3C WebFonts Working Group won an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for standardizing font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices. On 1 January 2023, it reformed as
124-532: A model, permissions, and a common core of APIs". However, Google joined this during its overhaul of Chrome's extension API, known as Manifest V3 , which greatly reduces the capability of ad blockers and privacy -related extensions. Thus the WebExtensions group is viewed by some extension developers as nothing more than Google imposing its Manifest V3 design. Browser extensions typically have access to sensitive data, such as browsing history , and they have
155-599: A new edition or level of the recommendation. Additionally, the W3C publishes various kinds of informative notes which are to be used as references. Unlike the Internet Society and other international standards bodies, the W3C does not have a certification program. The W3C has decided, for now, that it is not suitable to start such a program, owing to the risk of creating more drawbacks for the community than benefits. In January 2023, after 28 years of being jointly administered by
186-456: A public-interest 501(c)(3) non-profit organization . W3C develops technical specifications for HTML5 , CSS , SVG , WOFF , the Semantic Web stack , XML , and other technologies. Sometimes, when a specification becomes too large, it is split into independent modules that can mature at their own pace. Subsequent editions of a module or specification are known as levels and are denoted by
217-576: A set of core principles and components that are chosen by the consortium. It was originally intended that CERN host the European branch of W3C; however, CERN wished to focus on particle physics , not information technology . In April 1995, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation became the European host of W3C, with Keio University Research Institute at SFC becoming
248-462: A working draft (WD) for review by the community. A WD document is the first form of a standard that is publicly available. Commentary by virtually anyone is accepted, though no promises are made with regard to action on any particular element commented upon. At this stage, the standard document may have significant differences from its final form. As such, anyone who implements WD standards should be ready to significantly modify their implementations as
279-629: Is a software module for customizing a web browser . Browsers typically allow users to install a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking , and the custom scripting and styling of web pages . Browser plug-ins are a different type of module and no longer supported by the major browsers. One difference is that extensions are distributed as source code , while plug-ins are executables (i.e. object code ). The most popular browser, Google Chrome , has over 100,000 extensions available but stopped supporting plug-ins in 2020. Internet Explorer
310-403: Is done by external experts in the W3C's various working groups. The Consortium is governed by its membership. The list of members is available to the public. Members include businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, governmental entities, and individuals. Membership requirements are transparent except for one requirement: An application for membership must be reviewed and approved by
341-555: Is now endorsed by the W3C, indicating its readiness for deployment to the public, and encouraging more widespread support among implementors and authors. Recommendations can sometimes be implemented incorrectly, partially, or not at all, but many standards define two or more levels of conformance that developers must follow if they wish to label their product as W3C-compliant. A recommendation may be updated or extended by separately-published, non-technical errata or editor drafts until sufficient substantial edits accumulate for producing
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#1732854695384372-562: Is the version of a standard that has passed the prior two levels. The users of the standard provide input. At this stage, the document is submitted to the W3C Advisory Council for final approval. While this step is important, it rarely causes any significant changes to a standard as it passes to the next phase. This is the most mature stage of development. At this point, the standard has undergone extensive review and testing, under both theoretical and practical conditions. The standard
403-536: The Chrome Web Store after many users complained about unwanted pop-up ads. The following year, Google acknowledged that about five percent of visits to its own websites had been altered by extensions with adware. World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web . Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee ,
434-1002: The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (located in Stata Center ) in the United States, the (in Sophia Antipolis , France), Keio University (in Japan) and Beihang University (in China), the W3C incorporated as a legal entity, becoming a public-interest not-for-profit organization . The W3C has a staff team of 70–80 worldwide as of 2015 . W3C is run by a management team which allocates resources and designs strategy, led by CEO Jeffrey Jaffe (as of March 2010), former CTO of Novell . It also includes an advisory board that supports strategy and legal matters and helps resolve conflicts. The majority of standardization work
465-524: The consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in the development of standards for the World Wide Web. As of 5 March 2023, W3C had 462 members. W3C also engages in education and outreach, develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee after he left
496-665: The Asian host in September 1996. Starting in 1997, W3C created regional offices around the world. As of September 2009, it had eighteen World Offices covering Australia, the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and, as of 2016, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In October 2012, W3C convened
527-864: The European Organization for Nuclear Research ( CERN ) in October 1994. It was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science with support from the European Commission , and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency , which had pioneered the ARPANET , the most direct predecessor to the modern Internet . It was located in Technology Square until 2004, when it moved, with
558-522: The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, to the Stata Center. The organization tries to foster compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new standards defined by the W3C. Incompatible versions of HTML are offered by different vendors, causing inconsistency in how web pages are displayed. The consortium tries to get all those vendors to implement
589-450: The W3C started considering adding DRM -specific Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) to HTML5 , which was criticised as being against the openness, interoperability, and vendor neutrality that distinguished websites built using only W3C standards from those requiring proprietary plug-ins like Flash . On 18 September 2017, the W3C published the EME specification as a recommendation, leading to
620-516: The W3C. Many guidelines and requirements are stated in detail, but there is no final guideline about the process or standards by which membership might be finally approved or denied. The cost of membership is given on a sliding scale, depending on the character of the organization applying and the country in which it is located. Countries are categorized by the World Bank 's most recent grouping by gross national income per capita. In 2012 and 2013,
651-569: The ability to alter some browser settings, add user interface items, or replace website content. As a result, there have been instances of malware , so users need to be cautious about what extensions they install. There have also been cases of applications installing browser extensions without the user's knowledge , making it hard for the user to uninstall the unwanted extension. Some Google Chrome extension developers have sold their extensions to third-parties who then incorporated adware . In 2014, Google removed two such extensions from
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#1732854695384682-458: The add-ons site is tailored for users . By default, Firefox automatically checks the site for updates to installed add-ons. In January 2008, Mozilla announced that the site had accumulated a total of 600 million add-on downloads and that over 100 million installed add-ons automatically check the site for updates every day. In July 2012, the total had increased to 3 billion downloads from the site. Browser extension A browser extension
713-472: The data used by another extension or any file accessible to the user running Mozilla applications. But the current WebExtensions API imposes many restrictions. Starting with Firefox 40, Mozilla began to roll out a requirement for extension signing. It is now required in all official Firefox releases. The Mozilla add-ons website is the official repository for Firefox add-ons. In contrast to mozdev.org which provides free hosting for Mozilla-related projects,
744-455: The first integer in the title (e.g. CSS3 = Level 3). Subsequent revisions on each level are denoted by an integer following a decimal point (for example, CSS2.1 = Revision 1). The W3C standard formation process is defined within the W3C process document, outlining four maturity levels through which each new standard or recommendation must progress. After enough content has been gathered from 'editor drafts' and discussion, it may be published as
775-537: The new WebExtensions API is supported. Early versions of Firefox supported themes that could greatly change the appearance of the browser, but this was scaled back over time. Current themes are limited to changing the background and text color of toolbars. (These lightweight themes were formerly called personas.) Prior to 2017, Firefox supported extensions developed with different APIs: XUL , XPCOM , and Jetpack . Mozilla now refers to these as legacy extensions. Plug-ins are no longer supported in Firefox. In
806-485: The past, they were used to handle media types for which the application did not have built-in capability. They were deprecated due to security concerns and improvements in Web APIs . The last one that was officially supported was Adobe Flash Player , which Adobe discontinued in 2020. Mozilla had no mechanism to restrict the privileges of legacy Firefox extensions. This meant that a legacy extension could read or modify
837-403: The same or very similar API due to the popularity of Google Chrome . Chrome was the first browser with an extension API based solely on HTML , CSS , and JavaScript . Beta testing for this capability began in 2009, and the following year Google opened the Chrome Web Store . As of June 2012, there were 750 million total installations of extensions and other content hosted on the store. In
868-432: The same year, Chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser, and its usage share reached 60% in 2018. Because of Chrome's success, Microsoft created a very similar extension API for its Edge browser, with the goal of making it easy for Chrome extension developers to port their work to Edge. But after three years Edge still had a disappointingly small market share, so Microsoft rebuilt it as
899-616: The standard matures. A candidate recommendation is a version of a more mature standard than the WD. At this point, the group responsible for the standard is satisfied that the standard meets its goal. The purpose of the CR is to elicit aid from the development community on how implementable the standard is. The standard document may change further, but significant features are mostly decided at this point. The design of those features can still change due to feedback from implementors. A proposed recommendation
930-481: Was enacted in 2017. Firefox extensions are now largely compatible with their Chrome counterparts. Apple was the last major exception to this trend, but support for extensions conforming to the Chrome API was added to Safari for macOS in 2020. Extensions were later enabled in the iOS version for the first time. In 2021, these browser vendors formed a new W3C community group, called WebExtensions, to "specify
961-573: Was the first major browser to support extensions, with the release of version 4 in 1997. Firefox has supported extensions since its launch in 2004. Opera and Chrome began supporting extensions in 2009, and Safari did so the following year. Microsoft Edge added extension support in 2016. In 2015, a community group formed under the W3C to create a single standard application programming interface (API) for browser extensions. While this particular work did not reach fruition, every major browser now has