14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla Labs has just introduced a very interesting new extension dubbed Lab Kit. The extension is just a placeholder of sorts since it just installs, updates and removes other Mozilla Labs experiments, depending on what the team decides should go in or out.
"Mozilla Labs is pleased to announce an easy way for you to keep up to date with our latest experiments. With Lab Kit, Firefox will securely install add-ons that have been reviewed and approved by the Mozilla Labs team," Edward Lee from the Mozilla Labs team announced.
"We will make sure the contents of your Lab Kit stays fresh by automatically updating, adding or removing experiments," he explained.
If you're thinking that this sounds familiar, it is. Google Chrome actually introduced a very similar feature, aptly named Chrome Labs, a couple of months back.
Chrome Labs, which has since been rebranded as Flags to emphasize its experimental status, enables users to manage new features that the Chrome team deems stable enough for testing but is not confident enough to make them a part of the proper browser.
There are some differences between Mozilla's Lab Kit and the Flags feature, most notable being that Lab Kit doesn't really provide a way to manage the experiments, everything is done automatically.
With Flags, users get a list of available experiments and can choose what to enable. With Lab Kit, the experiments Mozilla wants tested are installed and enabled automatically and show up like regular extensions in the add-on manager.
"The initial experiments in the Lab Kit are Test Pilot, Prospector – Speak Words, and Contacts. Respectively, these add-ons provide structured feedback about Firefox, improve searching from the Awesome Bar, and allow Firefox to better understand your online contacts," Lee added.
Mozilla Lab Kit doesn't require a browser restart and neither do any of the experimental extensions installed. Of course, a version of Test Pilot comes pre-installed with the Firefox 4 beta, so Lab Kit only installs Prospector and Contacts, providing you didn't already have them installed.
Mozilla Lab Kit for Firefox 4 is available for download here.