Add-ons Manager Search Results Now Limited to Fully Reviewed Add-ons

Having a wide variety of content on addons.mozilla.org has always been a top priority for us, which is why some years ago we decided that we needed two different levels of acceptance for the add-ons we host and distribute. Fully reviewed add-ons meet all of our quality standards, while preliminarily reviewed add-ons only have to meet a lower standard, focused mostly on security and privacy. This gives developers the liberty to distribute experimental and not-quite-ready add-ons, and gather user feedback as they work on them.

Naturally, we make both review levels easily distinguishable on AMO, giving fully reviewed add-ons the usual green install button, while preliminarily reviewed add-ons have a stripped yellow button. We also give fully reviewed add-ons higher precedence on search results and most other places.

Unfortunately, we never implemented this distinction in the Firefox Add-ons Manager. This meant that users were able to find and install preliminarily reviewed add-ons without any indication of their review level. Since we believe this can be detrimental for the majority of our users, we decided to limit Add-ons Manager search results to fully reviewed add-ons. This is a server side change, so it applies to all versions of Firefox.

If you’re interested in trying more experimental add-ons, you can always find them on AMO.

5 responses

  1. Brett Zamir wrote on :

    It might help to clarify that the “Firefox Add-ons Manager” is the portal to AMO within the browser…

  2. M R wrote on :

    IMHO better solution would be to make some kind of indicator, which would give information about the review level. Add-ons should be available through the AMO as well as the FF Add-ons Manager.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on :

      Yes, that was the original plan. But it hasn’t materialized yet, so we went with what we though was the second best option. Hopefully we will eventually have a way to tell them apart and make them available through the Add-ons Manager again.

  3. bcharles wrote on :

    What is involved in getting fully reviewed? Is it just a matter of time, or is it requested when ready?

    A more important indicator than review, might be user feed back. There does not seem to be a way to flag an extension, other than by public comments, to indicate a severe bug, or that it has stopped working with the current firefox.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on :

      Full review is requested by developers. When submitting the add-on they can choose Full Review or Preliminary Review.

      Also, comments are not the right way to report bugs. Add-on listings generally have support links on the right hand side column.