14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is on the brink of releasing yet another development milestone of Gran Paradiso on its track to Firefox 3.0. Having killed support for Firefox 1.5, Mozilla is not focusing exclusively on version 2.0 and on the future release of the open source browser scheduled for general availability towards the end of 2007. Mozilla is also on a continuous ascendant trend on the browser market, accounting for a share of 15.42% as of April 2007. Microsoft is of course left bleeding by Mozilla's increasing adoption and popularity, and has witnessed its browser market share for Internet Explorer gradually erode to just over 78%.
However, one of the main reasons behind Firefox's popularity along with the inherent consumer perception of security is the high level of customization. Unlike Internet Explorer, for which Microsoft has drawn a traditional, stand-alone path, Firefox delivers users with a plethora of personalization options. In this context, add-ons play an important role in the Firefox culture. But could it all come to an end?
Mozilla will in fact take steps to secure Firefox 3, the upcoming version of the open source browser. While the foundation has frozen the code for Gran Paradiso Alpha 5 and is preparing to release the milestone, Mozilla has brought to the table the subject of security and add-ons.
"There are thousands of incredibly diverse add-ons for Firefox. This active participation by third party developers enhances browsing for many users. Add-ons are an important part of Firefox, so Mozilla is committed to helping developers create secure add-ons. This week there's been some concern about updates that are distributed over non-SSL channels. Connections using HTTP (instead of HTTPS) can be redirected by an attacker to a hostile server and potentially install malicious code," Mozilla revealed.
The official Mozilla Add-ons website hosts code served over HTTPS and hash-validated. Still, Mozilla announced that it will further restrict add-ons. The limitations will begin being enforced with Firefox 3. By contrast, Microsoft plans to open Internet Explorer to developers with the next version of the browser planned for late 2008/early 2009. The Redmond Company has not set up any official guidelines for Internet Explorer 8, however having produced an excellent upgrade to IE6 with IE7, Microsoft will also focus on third-party developers and enhance user experience.