Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Firefox 2.0.0.1 and impact on addon downloads · 2006-12-21 01:30 by Wladimir Palant
I am looking at the development of addon downloads on Addons.Mozilla.Org for the last few days and I really have trouble understanding it:
The peaks we see at the end seem to be related to the Firefox 2.0.0.1 release today. That is only a minor release, shouldn’t be reason enough for people to revisit the addons page. And yet, why does it increase addon downloads so much? Is it that people don’t know about the automatic update feature and try to install all the latest versions of their extensions from AMO, even if there was no update? And then, this seems to have a larger effect on some extensions than on the others. What is so special about Download Statusbar that its downloads increased by factor five (!) today? Ok, maybe it has something to do with a new Download Statusbar version released yesterday. But why is it that FireFTP (rank 8) suddenly ranks third by hourly downloads? This extension hasn’t been updated since October and due to its focus on FTP it can’t possibly be useful for all too many people. At the same time, NoScript which ranks higher than FireFTP and is widely advertised as a “security solution” didn’t even double in downloads. That doesn’t make sense. What am I missing?
Comment [6]
Commenting is closed for this article.
VF · 2006-12-21 07:51 · #
This page is shown after you update and suggests visiting the addons page.
http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.1/whatsnew/
Runaway1956 · 2006-12-21 10:13 · #
Is it possible that you’re seeing a connection that doesn’t exist?
Possibly, a large number of people – perhaps university students? have recently discovered Firefox, and/or the addons to firefox that WORK FOR THEM?
Personally, I’ve just added to the number of hits, by installing FF to a new Virtual Machine.
Colorful tabs, FireFTP, adblock plus, dutchblock, fasterfox, and DownThemAll are essentials, IMO
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
A bunch of students? It would require the whole university to download extensions within a few hours to make such an impact.
vitamin-c · 2006-12-23 20:33 · #
people are stupid, dont try to understand stupidity, you’ll just end up more confused :)
I honestly think that the reason behind this is just stupidity.
People that have a real need for a ftp client usualy have a extended knowledge about computers in general, thus they allso have this special need, witch bring us back to knowledge.
now, knowledge is desierable, especialy for stupid people, since they lack it, thus want it, so they download something that would make them, or could make them, a part of this special group of people with knowledge.
now, since they are stupid, and use things they dont need, they also think that they always need the most up to date version of everything (like 64-bits softwear and photoshop 4 and above), so they download the newest version, just as they download photoshop cs3, without even knowling whats new with it.
now, thats more or less what i think about it :)
happy hollydays and i hope santa gives you that special litte thing you want!
take care and thanks for bringing us this lovley extension!
Greg · 2006-12-27 00:24 · #
I think Add-Ons is being spammed (well, spam downloads) to boost ratings for some add-ons. Have a look at the themes for instance. They are seriously whacked – Firefox Vista is number 3 – it’s not 2.0 compatible, and has poor ratings – yet it has been number 1 before. And some of the other Top 5 themes are rather ugly as well.
K · 2006-12-27 14:28 · #
hello
No Just Us for Peace · 2007-03-09 10:43 · #
Post firefox install should also mention ExtensionsMirror … AND add them to the install whitelist!!
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
Why? AMO’s extension review has issues but last I checked ExtensionMirror didn’t have one at all. So if somebody downloads an extension from ExtensionMirror that isn’t on AMO, he should be aware that this extension might be banned on AMO for a reason.