Mozilla Labs have just announced the Jetpack development extension for the Firefox browser. In essence, it allows for much easier development of Firefox plugins. Previously, you’d need a developer who was somewhat clued up with the intricacies of the browser, it’s never had a massive barrier to entry, but you wouldn’t just build a plugin for any campaign. But if I’d have a buck for everytime I’ve heard a pitch related to “let’s build a Firefox extension” I’d probably be a rich man. Inevitably it always get scuppered somehow (costs, lead time, limited knowledge, etc).
Now, with the release of Jetpack, it will allow developers who develop a microsite or other campaign related material to develop new plugins for the browser using technology that they are most familiar with – CSS, HTML, Javascript, etc. This means more stuff that you can do for a campaign. Here is a brief video explaining the basics – it does get quite technical later on so if you are an account or brand manager, don’t bother watching past 3:00 mins as it gets a bit techie, you’d be able to understand the gist of things though.
Mozilla Labs Jetpack – Intro & Tutorial from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.
So what does this mean?
Well, it means that your development team will be able to develop an extension a lot quicker than previously as they won’t need to learn a new technology, plus your users would be a lot more willing to download and install the extension as they won’t need to restart their browser (this has always been a barrier to adoption for Firefox extensions).
By making it easier to develop and install these extensions, we might see the advent of “throw away extensions” – plugins that exist only for the duration of the campaign and are removed afterwards. I mentioned the Orange Internet Balloon Race campaign yesterday – something like that would work brilliantly as a quick extension for your campaign.
As with the emergence of constellations, brands need to realise that they exist on many different levels – not only on their own brand site or microsite and that the browser is a great place to tie all these elements together. A Firefox extension is a fantastic way for brands to develop engaging conversations with their fans – the danger of course being that you don’t want to overwhelm them with too much!
On another note, Mozilla has now also decreased the barrier to entry for potential extension developers. As stated above, one required different knowledge to build a Firefox extension previously, Jetpack now allows any person with knowledge of the standard web technologies to create an extension. And it’s been the extension market place that has led Firefox to become such a popular browser in the first place (that, and the fact that it’s NOT Internet Explorer!). This is a great step by Mozilla to expand on their Marketplace strategy (just as Apple, Nokia, Facebook, etc have done).
Here are links to Techcrunch, as well as ZDnet for some other light analysis.
Are there any great extensions that you can think of to develop for your brands’ campaign?