14 DAY TRIAL // Google has decided to discontinue the Google Toolbar for Firefox. It hasn't said much about it, but it did reveal that it will no longer be updating it and that it will be incompatible with future versions of Firefox.
The toolbar is already incompatible with Firefox 5 and this is causing some problems for Mozilla, which is trying to get people to upgrade from Firefox 4, the last version that supports the toolbar.
Mozilla is worried that a lot of toolbar users are sticking with Firefox 4 or Firefox 3.6 in the hope that the toolbar will eventually be updated, since Google hasn't really advertised the fact that it's deprecating the tool, or for fear of losing their data.
Mozilla held a meeting to discuss what steps can be taken to encourage people to upgrade and to help them get their data out and present them with alternatives to features in the Google Toolbar.
"We know that a large amount of users are not taking update offers to 5+ due to Google Toolbar incompatibility," Mozilla wrote.
"Many users likely expect a new version of Google toolbar to be released and marked compatible," it said.
The latest version of the Google Toolbar actually works with Firefox 5, even newer versions like Firefox 8, but it is marked as incompatible so it can't be installed in these browsers, unless you also install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension for Firefox, which can force install add-ons.
Mozilla already has measures to prevent extensions from being marked incompatible, even though they would work with newer versions of Firefox, especially now with the new rapid release schedule, by updating add-ons in the Mozilla repository automatically, if they pass certain tests.
The Google Toolbar add-on though is hosted by Google so Mozilla can't do anything about this. Firefox 4 is no longer supported so there's nothing Mozilla can do about it, but there is a security update for Firefox 3.6 coming in a week or two.
The group is thinking about what measures could be implemented to help users migrate from the Toolbar especially since it will be one of the last updates to the Firefox 3.6 line. [via Cnet]