The most popular open-source browsers show off their add-on platform

Feb 3, 2010 19:21 GMT  ·  By
The most popular open-source browsers show off their add-on platforms
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   The most popular open-source browsers show off their add-on platforms

For a few years, the biggest single advantage Firefox had over its competitors were the highly popular add-ons, which bolt on functionality to the basic browser. Granted, for most of this time, it didn't really have any competitor. Internet Explorer was the de facto browser for most people not by choice but simply because it came bundled with Windows. With Google entering the browser market with Chrome a year and a half ago, things are finally starting to heat up. And since Google Chrome very recently got support for extensions, first in the beta channel and now in the stable build, there wasn't a better time for an add-on stand off.

And to give Chrome a fighting chance, we chose the universal weather gadget as the metric by which to judge the two browsers. If Google Chrome can't even get weather extensions right, something is definitely wrong. In Part 1, the most popular weather extensions for Chrome, at least by Google's reckoning, strutted their stuff and now it's time for Firefox to do the same. For the data accuracy comparison, based on several sources and the trusty 'go outside' method, the real temperature was around -2° C, -3° C.

1. AniWeather It's not the biggest weather add-on in the Mozilla repository for overall downloads but is certainly the biggest by weekly installs. The fact that it has recently been updated also probably helped it reach over 95,000 weekly installs. As the name implies, its claim to fame is the fact that it has animated weather effects to mirror the conditions outside. So, if you can't enjoy the drizzle outside, you can at least enjoy in your browser in a dedicated tab. Other than that, it is a standard, fully-featured weather add-on. It displays current conditions and a 2-day forecast in the status bar and also has some nice overlays with a more detailed view when hovering the mouse. It indicated -4° C, reasonable enough.

2. Forecastfox for Firefox By far the most popular weather add-on for Firefox, it has been downloaded more than 20 million times so far. It comes with a full-feature set to satisfy even the most demanding user, though most people only really need at most 10 percent of the features. It sits in the status bar, as all the other weather add-ons for Firefox, and displays current conditions, 3-day forecast and quick buttons to the radar map, 5-day forecast and hourly forecast. It's highly customizable, you can remove anything from the toolbar or the overlay popups and even change the icons used. You can also set up different configuration profiles for example for different locations or to have a more detailed view. It reported -11° C.

3. WeatherBug Another popular add-on, WeatherBug takes the most balanced approach. By default, it shows the current conditions and temperature and the forecast for the next days using just a few graphical icons. This means that it doesn't clutter the status bar, a welcomed change especially if you have several add-ons installed. However, clicking for the full-detail view reveals that it packs a lot more features than is apparent, very detailed conditions, radar map, even live cameras where available. Its accuracy wasn't so great though, as it showed -11° C, just like Forecastfox.

4. 1-ClickWeather for Firefox It is one of the most feature-complete add-ons, on par with Forecastfox. By default, it displays the current conditions as well as the forecast for 2 days ahead. There are also buttons for the radar map (which also pops up when hovering the mouse), hourly forecast, as well as a 10-day forecast. It's an official add-on from Weather.com and was the most accurate, displaying -2° C.

5. WeatherWatcher This add-on bills itself as "your personal, real-time weather station." It certainly packs quite a few features, though nothing out of the ordinary. It displays a three-day forecast, as well as hourly conditions for the day. The data comes from WeatherBug, though, for some reason, it failed to detect any weather stations near enough for the data to be relevant.

Don't pay too much attention to the ranking as, just like with the Chrome gallery, the Mozilla Add-ons search can be a little iffy, so the listed add-ons may trade places with each other. Overall, the Chrome extensions gallery can't even begin to compete with Mozilla when it comes to downloads. The Firefox version of Forecastfox has well over 20 million downloads, while the one for Google Chrome has a little over 36,000, but this is just one month after the gallery was launched. And quality-wise, the Chrome extensions more than hold their own versus their Firefox counterparts.

AniWeather for Firefox is available for download here. Mozilla Firefox is available for download here.

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The most popular open-source browsers show off their add-on platforms
AniWeather, the full-page overlayAniWeather, the pop-up overlay
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