{"id":2438,"date":"2011-04-01T09:16:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T16:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/?p=2438"},"modified":"2011-05-02T01:08:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T08:08:55","slug":"improving-add-on-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/04\/01\/improving-add-on-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Add-on Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Firefox performance is extremely important to our users, especially how quickly it starts up and loads websites. Customization is also extremely important, and while most add-ons cause only a tiny performance impact, others can significantly slow down Firefox. Many users don&#8217;t realize add-ons can cause these delays, and that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re committed to improving performance in a big way.<\/p>\n<h2>How slow are we talking about?<\/h2>\n<p>On average, <strong>each add-on you install adds about 10% to Firefox start-up time<\/strong>. For some users that&#8217;s mere milliseconds, and for others it may be half a second; it all depends on the hardware and software of each individual. Many add-ons add less than 10%, and unfortunately, there are quite a few add-ons that add more. But based on our <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/02\/10\/add-on-metadata-start-up-time\/\">real-world performance data<\/a>, installing 10 add-ons will double Firefox&#8217;s start-up time.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Mozilla doing about it?<\/h2>\n<p>We&#8217;re excited to announce a number of initiatives we&#8217;re working on to reduce the performance impact of add-ons through developer tools, documention, and user education.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Automated performance testing<\/strong> &mdash; Every week, we perform automated performance tests of the top 100 add-ons hosted in our gallery and <a href=\"https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/performance\">display the results<\/a>. Soon, we will automatically scan new versions of all add-ons as they are submitted. In the coming months, we will expand this to include other measures, such as page load time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Slow performance warnings<\/strong> &mdash; In the next two weeks, we&#8217;ll begin displaying warnings in our gallery for any add-on that slows Firefox start-up time by 25% or more. We think users deserve to know when an add-on will impact them and want them to make an informed decision to install the add-on. In an upcoming version of Firefox, these warnings will be displayed in the Add-ons Manager as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Performance documentation and outreach<\/strong> &mdash; We&#8217;ve updated our <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en\/Extensions\/Performance_best_practices_in_extensions\">Performance Best Practices<\/a> and have begun reaching out to developers of slow add-ons and asking them to work on performance. This isn&#8217;t limited to add-ons hosted in our gallery; it includes all slow add-ons we can find.<\/li>\n<li><strong>On-demand performance testing<\/strong> &mdash; In the coming months, we&#8217;ll provide tools for developers to upload an add-on and receive a performance report to test the effectiveness of their fixes on the same machines that officially rate their performance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Required opt-in for installation<\/strong> &mdash; It&#8217;s an all-too-common practice of third-party software to install toolbars and other bundled add-ons in your browser without permission. We know that these add-ons account for many of the performance problems reported to us, and users often don&#8217;t know how the add-on got there or how to remove it. In an upcoming version of Firefox, third party add-ons will not be installed unless the user explicitly allows the installation in Firefox. We expect this to have a huge impact on Firefox performance, as well as giving users back the control they should have over their add-ons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What should add-on developers do?<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.mozilla.org\/Firefox\/Projects\/StartupPerformance\/MeasuringStartup\">Test<\/a><\/strong> in all the possible configurations a user might encounter.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn<\/strong> the <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en\/Extensions\/Performance_best_practices_in_extensions\">Performance Best Practices<\/a> and use them when developing your add-ons.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Optimize<\/strong> your add-ons, aiming for 5% start-up impact or less.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you need help or have questions, <a href=\"https:\/\/forums.mozilla.org\/addons\/viewforum.php?f=7\">ask us<\/a>. We&#8217;ll soon be providing additional documentation, tools, and advice on improving performance.<\/p>\n<h2>What can Firefox users do?<\/h2>\n<p>The best way to combat slow add-ons is to <a href=\"http:\/\/support.mozilla.com\/kb\/Uninstalling%20add-ons#w_how-to-disable-extensions-and-plugins\">disable add-ons<\/a> you no longer use. Disabling an add-on will prevent it from loading and slowing down Firefox, yet keeps it in your Add-ons Manager so that you can re-enable it anytime you&#8217;d like.<\/p>\n<p>Firefox users shouldn&#8217;t have to choose between customization and performance, and with the help of add-on developers and the Mozilla community, they can have both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Firefox performance is extremely important to our users, especially how quickly it starts up and loads websites. Customization is also extremely important, and while most add-ons cause only a tiny &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/04\/01\/improving-add-on-performance\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[311],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Improving Add-on Performance - Mozilla Add-ons Community Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/04\/01\/improving-add-on-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/04\/01\/improving-add-on-performance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2011\/04\/01\/improving-add-on-performance\/\",\"name\":\"Improving Add-on Performance - 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