14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla, like all other browser creators, is fighting with software makers who use aggressive means to promote their tools and get people to use them, even if it means changing the browser homepage, search engine, and so on.
Sometimes, people really want four toolbars one on top of the other and to change their search engine to some obscure one that probably still uses Google Search underneath.
Most of the time though, users have no idea what they are doing and how the software they are installing is affecting their browser.
Mozilla is perhaps hit harder by this than most, since Firefox is highly customizable. But Firefox is also the browser with the greatest protection against unwanted changes and add-ons.
However, sometimes, technology is not the only way to fight bad or annoying behavior.
Sometimes just reaching out to a software maker is enough to make a change. Mozilla did just that with the makers of the Babylon translation add-on and toolbar.
"Thanks to the last update in the Babylon translation software installer, support requests related to the way it customizes Firefox have dropped sharply, as much as 60% in some areas," Mozilla writes.
"Until recently there wasn't a Right Way of doing this, so every software vendor did it their own way. This has led to an inconsistent and unsatisfying user experience, which has brought a great deal of work to our support staff," it adds.
Mozilla came up with new Add-on Guidelines which dealt with issues such as homepage or search engine changes.
Just by talking to the Babylon toolbar makers and getting them to make some of the changes Mozilla wanted, support requests from Firefox users dealing with customization issues have dropped by 60 percent in some cases.
"We have been in contact with software vendors like Babylon for quite a while now, and these discussions have yielded positive results," Mozilla also said.
"We’re especially happy about the progress we’ve made with Babylon because their install base is particularly large, causing the support team to immediately notice the change in user sentiment after their install experience was improved," it added.