Extend Firefox

Now that the Extend Firefox 3.5 Contest is officially over, the hard part of judging the add-ons comes into play. We had 64 add-ons submitted with 40 of those being brand-new new add-ons and 24 being upgrades.

We have a great set of judges which will help to put these great entries through their paces and whittle the list down to the eventual winners. The winners will be announced on or about November 9th, 2009.

Thanks to all that submitted an add-on and good luck!

Due to a timezone issue, the contest submission form closed an hour earlier than it should have. In order to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to join in on the contest, we’ve re-enabled the submission form to allow those affected by the early closing to submit your entries. You can submit your add-on here:

http://labs.mozilla.com/contests/extendfirefox3.5/enter.php

The contest will end tomorrow, Tuesday October 6th, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific Time (GMT -7).

We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

Time is almost up for the Extend Firefox contest and you need to get your entries in by tomorrow (10/2/09). Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm Pacific Time (GMT -8) so don’t wait until the last minute!

The submission page can be found here:

http://labs.mozilla.com/contests/extendfirefox3.5/enter.php

We look forward to seeing all of the great ideas being submitted.

We recently received some great news from Jay Meattle of Shareaholic and wanted to share it with the community:

“This week we closed an angel round of funding for Shareaholic to support and accelerate ongoing development from prominent east coast angels. We may also be a part of a NY Times story this Sunday!

Other add-on authors should use Extend Firefox as a launching platform — as you never know – their add-on may just end up becoming a lot bigger than themselves and change their lives. Extend Firefox is a lot bigger than the great prizes on offer. Extend Firefox kickstarted my awesome Shareaholic journey. I adore our users and the resulting community that has formed around Shareaholic, it has been really fulfilling, and there isn’t a day that we wouldn’t go way above and beyond for our users.”

A couple of things to take away from this are that the Mozilla platform offers developers the tools to build successful web ventures as well as the support and distribution channels to get your product out to a large, focused audience. In addition, the Extend Firefox contest is an excellent way to get introduced into add-on development and also make your mark in the browser application world.

Jay, Mozilla congratulates you on your success and we hope to continue to provide the best platform, tools & support for developers to build world-class applications such as Shareaholic.

Hi everyone! There are only 7 days left to put the final touches on your genius idea. Remember, the contest closes on October 2, 2009 at 11:59pm PST!

We are eager to see what you’ve come up with. As always, let us know if you have any last minute questions or needs. Thanks for being involved and making this contest great. Good luck to all!

The Shareaholic team, who were Extend Firefox 2.0 winners, have created a great AMO collection featuring add-ons that were Extend Firefox grand prize winners.

This is very cool! Thanks guys!

The Extend Firefox 3.5 contest is currently under way and you still have time to enter before the October 2nd deadline. Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to build the next great web experience and win some fantastic prizes.

The October 2nd deadline is fast approaching and with only 29 days left to build the next great web experience, we wanted to remind you of the resources available to help you during the contest period:

Mozilla Developer Center

Your best source of information and starting point for Mozilla technical question should be the Mozilla Developer Center. With the breadth of information provided there, it’s an invaluable information resource for pushing your add-on to the next level.

Firefox 3.5 Add-on Development

The following docs are specific to add-on development for Firefox and a great resource for understanding how to take advantage of Firefox 3.5′s features.

Firefox Add-on Documentation
Firefox 3.5 for Developers
Firefox Add-ons Developer Guide

Add-on Tutorials

These tutorials will give you the jumpstart you need to get cranking with your development.

How to develop a Firefox extension by Robert Nyman
Video Tutorial – Extensions Bootcamp: Zero to “Hello World” in 45 Minutes
Extension Development 101

Style Guides

Making sure your code is well-formed will help to make your add-ons more maintainable and easier to review by the judges and editors.

JavaScript Style Guide
XUL Style Guide

Community

Mozilla was built on community support so you’ll be able to find plenty of help in the Extend Firefox Discussion Forum.

If you’re never built an add-on but really want to enter the Extend Firefox 3.5 contest, we have some resources that will help get you up to speed. First we have Robert Nyman’s excellent tutorial on building add-ons:

How to develop a Firefox extension by Robert Nyman

Also, two great videos to help you get started are below:

Extension Development 101

Extension Development 101 from rhian on Vimeo.

Extensions Bootcamp: Zero to “Hello World” in 45 Minutes

Extension Bootcamp (Mozilla Labs Design Challenge: Spring 09) from Mozilla Labs – Concept Series on Vimeo.

And don’t forget that we’ve created an Extend Firefox 3.5 discussion group to answer an questions you have about the contest. Good luck!

The Extend Firefox contest is back challenging developers to make the next great web experience!

This global developer contest awards prizes for developing new Firefox Add-ons for the upcoming production release of Firefox 3.5. Last year’s contest received over 100 add-on submissions of some of the coolest and most innovative add-ons to-date and with Firefox 3.5 really raising the bar in terms of features, you can expect this year’s competition to be intense!

We’ve worked hard to line up great documentation and resources for contestants along with awesome prizes for the winners. Along with MacBook Pro laptops, the contest’s sponsors are providing professional development tools, software and books which are sure to complement any developers toolkit & library!

All entries will be judged by a panel of experts, with Grand Prize and Runner’s Up prize packages awarded for add-ons that take advantage of the new capabilities being introduced in Firefox 3.5 and that demonstrate excellence in user experience, innovativeness, and use of open standards. In addition, we’ve added two new categories this year for the best shopping add-on and the best gaming and entertainment add-on. Hot!

Special thanks to our sponsors, Manning Publications, InformIT, MacroMates, Sofa and ExpanDrive, for offering up some cool prizes and for helping to promote and get the word out to the wider development community!

Extend Firefox 3.5 is open now and runs through October 2nd, 2009.

Official contest rules and information are available at http://www.extendfirefox.com/.