How Firefox Reacted To the Removal of Ad-Ons from Google Chrome?

In the previous post’ we discussed that Google had to take strict action against a couple of extensions to remove an issue with its Chrome web browser.  As per reported in leading tech blogs, the browser extensions “Add to Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” were spitting out unwanted ads. With the growing concern/anger by the users, Google finally punished them by removing from Chrome app store.

After such an incident, a lot many users were concerned that other Web browsers, like Mozilla’s ultra-popular Firefox, could be susceptible to similar shenanigans, and perhaps rightly so. Therefore, Mozilla’s PR team came up with an immediate response to the development.

According to a post in the Digital Trends; “If you ask Mozilla, however, that issue is not likely to crop up for Firefox users. Here what a Mozilla spokesperson had to say when asked about the possibility of Firefox add-ons getting hijacked with ad-spamming code the way “Add to “Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” were on Chrome.

“For add-ons hosted on addons.mozilla.org, all version updates are code reviewed and tested by a member of our review team, and it needs to pass all of our review policies to be pushed to users via auto-update,” Mozilla’s spokesperson said. “One such policy is that all unexpected changes, such as advertising, needs to be explicitly opt-in. This all makes it more difficult for this kind of hijacking to be effective for add-ons listed on Mozilla Add-ons.”

Looking at what industry experts’ claim; “Mozilla Firefox isn’t exactly bulletproof when it comes to add-on hijacks. A past experience of “Autocopy’ add-on is cited as example. It was developed and then sold to a tech start-up called “Wips”. Once the add-on was acquired by the company, it was re-jiggered to include code containing ad generating instructions. Here, they not only highlighted loopholes in the Mozilla’s add-on approval system but also violated the terms of agreement or service.

Therefore, we will have to see what sort of development comes ahead, particularly when Google Chrome is already in news for quite an extreme step. From the users’ viewpoint, these developments are encouraging as they will help in obtaining quality navigation and browsing experience. We have seen in the past that when people complained about frequent shockwave flash crash incidents in browsers, the developers had to come up with a solution. Therefore, if such bad practice has come to limelight; Mozilla, Google, Apple and other browser developing companies would surely take a deep look at their extensions.

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Disciplinary Action - Google Removes Two Chrome Extensions Over Spam

Google has taken another strategic disciplinary action, in a bid to end/discourage Spam. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google has removed two extensions from Chrome browser after it was discovered the software included code that served people ads. This was sort of tactic that violated the company’s terms of service.

This weekend, there were rumors that two extensions — “Add to Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” — each one of them had less than 100,000 users might receive penalty. The probable reason behind this penalty is being described as promoting undesirable ads, which users complained about. As per WSJ; "one user review for “Add to Feedly” called the extension “Spam” that caused ads to suddenly pop up on any website visited."

Ever since launching Chrome, Google has made many updates and took certain measures to strengthen it against Firefox. Earlier, people were complaining about Shockwave Flash Crashes in the browser. This bug was a serious problem that used to result in browser's crash or regular hangs. As a result a furious competition started in the development industry to come up with the most reliable shockwave flash crash fixing tool. However, there too, some low-quality plug-in caused problem. Therefore, Google has turned a bit harsh towards Spam and bad-ads.

What is an Extension?

Extensions are small bits of code that alter a browser by adding new features or removing others. AdBlock, for example, is a popular extension that automatically blocks advertising on websites. Google had updated its policies in December last year, where it made software developers bound not to use extensions to insert advertising on more than one part of a page. 

As per the Google guidelines, the extensions should serve only one purpose. While “Add to Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” had small numbers of users, their kind of situation could be more pervasive. 

With this development, there are chances that Google might inspect other extensions too. However, the good development is that, developers are surely to learn something from this case. We can expect some improved browsing experience as a result of such disciplinary actions.