AMO/Featured Board Process

Please see https://addons.mozilla.org/developers/docs/policies/recommended for the latest information.

Mozilla needs your help selecting Featured add-ons

Since the beginning of AMO, we’ve had a set of featured add-ons that are displayed prominently on the homepage and an ever-expanding list of other areas. Being featured guarantees downloads and notoriety, and many add-ons, especially start-ups, see it as crucial in order for their add-on to succeed.

End users see this list as a safe place to start with add-ons and trust Mozilla to feature great add-ons that work perfectly. However the selection process until now has been a pretty objective one, handled randomly by a small number of people, and the list has not been updated as frequently as we would have hoped.

We would therefore like to reach out to the Mozilla community to be part of an Advisory board to review new add-ons, and maintain a set of featured add-ons that are updated each month. We think this is a fair, and novel way to overcome some of the hurdles involved outlined above, and a chance to hand the responsibility over to the community that actually use and develop add-ons on a daily basis.

The Featured add-ons advisory board

Every 6 months, a call will go out via the Add-ons Blog for volunteers to participate in choosing featured add-ons. Volunteers must commit to trying the add-ons that apply to be featured and attending a monthly conference call to discuss suitability.

A note on member requirements:

Members must abstain from voting on add-ons that they have any business or personal affiliations with, as well as direct competitors of any such add-ons. Members must be picked from the add-ons community: power users, developers, and evangelists of add-ons

Featured Add-on selection process

First, all currently-featured add-ons will be reviewed to ensure their active user count is growing at an acceptable rate in relation to downloads. Add-ons that don’t show excellent growth will be removed from the featured list.

Selecting New Add-ons

Next, all applications submitted since the last meeting will be reviewed individually to discuss the merits of each add-on and experiences using the add-on. A vote will be taken for each add-on and the decision will be placed in the meeting notes, along with any reasons for rejection if applicable.

Removing old featured Add-ons

We regularly prune the featured list to keep it up-to-date and make room for new featured add-ons. Some of the reasons for removal include:

• Does not have wide appeal to consumers
• User experience is lacking
• Quality or security issues
• Too similar in functionality to another featured add-on

Add-on Requirements

1. The add-on must have a completed and informative listing on AMO. This means:

• 64 pixel custom icon
• clear name without lengthy SEO keywords in it
• screenshots of the add-on’s functionality
• a short, clear, and concise summary of the add-on’s functionality
• a detailed description describing additional details of the add-on’s functionality
• fully approved by AMO editors

2. The add-on must have excellent user reviews, and any problems or support requests should be promptly addressed by the developer.

3. The add-on must have a minimum of 500 users.

4. The add-on must be built with WebExtensions API.

5. Most importantly, the add-on must have wide consumer appeal to Firefox’s users and be outstanding in nearly every way: user experience, performance, security, and usefulness or entertainment value.

6. If an add-on is rejected, it is ineligible to apply again for 3 months.

Add-ons are encouraged to include any details and outside reviews they’ve received with their application, or may include up to 5 minutes of a video demo/tutorial/pitch.

Discovery Pane

The Get Add-ons section (also referred to as the Discovery Pane) in about:addons serves a distinct editorial function: it is a tightly curated list of add-ons and themes selected by Mozilla staff to address an array of the most common user needs (e.g. ad blockers, screenshot tools, etc.). The Discovery Pane is primarily intended to introduce add-ons to Firefox users who have limited experience with browser customization. As such, we only select add-ons that meet the highest standards of functionality, user experience, and Firefox compatibility.

Only content that is part of AMO’s Featured Extensions collection will be considered for the Discovery Pane; please note that featured content must meet certain criteria.

Discovery Pane content is updated monthly, though some highly popular add-ons may remain on the page for an indefinite period of time.

If you’d like to nominate a great add-on for consideration in the Discovery Pane, please send us a link to the add-on on AMO to amo-featured@mozilla.org and we’ll add your nomination to the editorial review queue. There’s no need to mention you’re nominating add-ons specifically for the Discovery Pane, but feel free to note that if you like.

Finally

Members of the Mozilla Add-ons team may veto any add-on’s selection because of security, privacy, compatibility, or any other reason, but will seek the Board’s approval before featuring any add-ons.

This featured policy only applies to the addons.mozilla.org global list of featured add-ons. Add-ons featured in other locations are often pulled from this list, but Mozilla may feature any add-on in other locations without the Board’s consent. Additionally, locale-specific features override the global defaults, so if a locale has opted to select their own features, some or all of the global features may not appear in that locale.