A few months ago, we launched a pilot for a new program to help developers promote their extensions on addons.mozilla.org (AMO). The main goal of this program was to increase the number of add-ons that our staff can review and verify as compliant with Mozilla policies and provide developers with options for boosting their discoverability on AMO.
For the pilot, we tested one iteration of how this type of program might work. Pilot developers would have their add-ons manually reviewed for policy compliance. After successfully passing manual review, the pilot add-ons received a Verified badge on their AMO listing page and in the Firefox Add-ons Manager (about:addons), while we removed the standard warning label about the risks of installing third party software.
Pilot developers could also promote their Verified add-ons on the AMO homepage.
During the pilot, developers participated at no cost. However, the intent of the experimentation was to determine if the Promoted Add-ons program made sense to graduate into a paid service for developers.
After reviewing the pilot results, we have decided not to move forward with this iteration of the program. Later this month the Verified badges for pilot participants will be deactivated and the Sponsored shelf on the AMO homepage removed. This was a difficult decision, but we believe there are other, more impactful ways we can help add-on developers be successful; and we’ve turned our attention to exploring new experimental programs. As we chart new developer focused efforts in 2021, we’ll be sure to post updates here.