While using Adblock Plus for Chrome as a starting point would require far less effort, this extension also has much less functionality compared to Adblock Plus for Firefox. Originally, we hoped to port Adblock Plus for Firefox properly. Furthermore, it would have been better if the designated successor of the classic extension platform were more mature by the time everybody is forced to rewrite their code. This doesn’t change the fact that this transition is very painful for extension developers, and many existing extensions won’t take this hurdle. They’ve also been delaying important Firefox improvements due to compatibility concerns. Due to their deep integration in the browser, classic extensions are more likely to break browser functionality or to cause performance issues. Mind you, there is no question why Mozilla is striving to stop supporting classic extensions. Otherwise Adblock Plus will simply stop working for the majority of our users. So we have to replace the current Adblock Plus by a Web Extension by then or ideally even by the time Firefox 57 is published as a beta version. Mozilla’s current plan is that Firefox 57 (scheduled for release on November 14, 2017) will no longer load classic extensions, and only Web Extensions are allowed to continue working. So why offer Adblock Plus as a Web Extension?īecause we have no other choice. Also, my personal view is that the differences between browsers are either going to result in more or less subtle incompatibilities or in an API which is limited by the lowest common denominator of all browsers and not good enough for anybody. It is worth noting that Web Extensions are necessarily less powerful than the classic Firefox extensions, even though many shortcomings can probably be addressed. The lack of interest from Google isn’t the only issue here so far the implementation of Web Extensions in Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge shows very significant differences as well. It isn’t obvious at this point how Web Extensions will develop. Why should they be, if they already established themselves as an extension market leader and made everybody copy their approach. And Google? Well, they aren’t interested. Mozilla and Microsoft are pursuing standardization of Web Extensions based on Google Chrome APIs. The goal is writing extensions in such a way that they could run on any browser without any or only with minimal modifications.
Brace for impact! What are Web Extensions?Īt some point, Web Extensions are supposed to become a new standard for creating browser extensions. TL DR: Sometime in autumn this year the current Adblock Plus for Firefox extension is going to be replaced by another, which is more similar to Adblock Plus for Chrome. Adblock Plus and (a little) more The plan towards offering Adblock Plus for Firefox as a Web Extension