Add-on (Mozilla) facts for kids
Have you ever wished your Firefox web browser could do more? That's where add-ons come in! An add-on is like a special tool or gadget you can add to Firefox to give it new features or change how it looks. Most add-ons are called "extensions" because they extend what your browser can do. Mozilla, the company that makes Firefox, offers these add-ons on its official website.
In 2017, Mozilla made big changes to how add-ons work. They updated the special code that helps add-ons talk to Firefox. This new way is similar to how add-ons work in Google Chrome. This means many add-ons now work well in both Firefox and Chrome. As of early 2024, there are over 36,000 add-ons and more than 495,000 themes available for Firefox!
Contents
Different Kinds of Add-ons
Themes
Themes let you change the way your Firefox browser looks. In the past, themes could change a lot about the browser's appearance. Now, themes mostly change the background and text colors of your toolbars. Think of them as different outfits for your browser!
WebExtensions
Since Firefox version 57, released in 2017, only a newer type of add-on called WebExtensions is supported. These are the modern, secure way to add features to Firefox.
Older Extensions
Before 2017, Firefox used different ways for extensions to work. Mozilla now calls these legacy extensions. These older types of extensions are no longer supported in current versions of Firefox.
Plug-ins
Plug-ins are no longer used in Firefox. In the past, they helped Firefox show special types of media, like videos or games, that it couldn't handle on its own. They were stopped because of security worries and because web technology improved. The last plug-in officially supported was Adobe Flash Player, which stopped working in 2020.
Keeping Your Browser Safe
Older Firefox extensions didn't have many security rules. This meant an old extension could sometimes access or change your other extensions' data, or even files on your computer. But the newer WebExtensions have strong security rules to keep your information safe.
Starting with Firefox 40, Mozilla began requiring all extensions to be "signed." This means Mozilla checks and approves them to make sure they are safe. Now, all official Firefox versions require extensions to be signed.
The Official Add-ons Website
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Hosts add-ons |
|---|---|
| Owner | Mozilla Foundation |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Free; only needed for developers or for special features |
| Current status | Active |
The Mozilla add-ons website is the official place to find and download add-ons for Firefox. It's made especially for users like you to easily find new tools for your browser. Firefox automatically checks this website for updates to any add-ons you have installed.
In January 2008, Mozilla announced that people had downloaded add-ons from the site over 600 million times! Also, more than 100 million installed add-ons checked the site for updates every day. By July 2012, the total number of downloads from the site had grown to an amazing 3 billion!
