Mozilla blocks Skype's glitchy Firefox toolbar extension

skype-large-logoThe Skype toolbar add-on has became a headache for Mozilla, and will be blocked from the Firefox browser until further notice. Mozilla announced yesterday that the Skype feature was responsible for roughly 40,000 crashed browsers in the last week, and was seriously slowing down page loading.

We can’t imagine there are too many people who are crushed about losing a toolbar plug-in, but for those of you that are – don’t worry too much yet. Mozilla reassures users that this is only a “soft block” while it looks into identifying and fixing the issues with help from the Skype Toolbar team. This also means that while the extension is currently disabled on Firefox’s end, you will be notified of the block and allowed to re-enable it as you see fit.


So what are you missing until the toolbar is fully functional? The plug-in cooperates with Skype software to identify phone numbers on individual web pages and making it that much easier to make VoIP calls.

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Courtesy:http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110121/tc_digitaltrends/mozillablocksskypesglitchyfirefoxtoolbarextension;_ylt=AikQKv2wWnWc95POlNT_2auor7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTQycHEwOW5lBGFzc2V0A2RpZ2l0YWx0cmVuZHMvMjAxMTAxMjEvbW96aWxsYWJsb2Nrc3NreXBlc2dsaXRjaHlmaXJlZm94dG9vbGJhcmV4dGVuc2lvbgRwb3MDNQRzZWMDeW5fcGFnaW5hdGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNtb3ppbGxhYmxvY2s-

New Firefox Feature Blocks Behavioral Ads

Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser, is working a feature that will allow users to opt-out of online behavioral advertising.

The goal is to give users "a deeper understanding of and control over personal information online," Mozilla's head of privacy said in a blog posted on Sunday.

The feature will allow users to configure their Firefox browser to tell websites and advertisers that they would like to opt-out of any advertising based on their behavior, Alex Fowler [cq] wrote in his blog post. The user's preference is communicated to websites and third party ad servers using a new "Do Not Track HTTP header", which is sent with every click or page view in Firefox.

The feature wouldn't block advertising altogether, only personalized ads. If the user has enabled the feature, the advertiser would have to exchange the personalized ad for a standard ad, according to a diagram included in the blog post.

Mozilla believes the header-based approach will be better for the Web in the long run, compared to cookies or blacklists. Using a header is less complex, more persistent than cookie-based solutions and at the same time simple to locate and use. It doesn't rely on a user's finding and loading lists of ad networks and advertisers to work, Fowler wrote.

However, rolling out the feature will be a challenge. For it to work, both browsers and sites will have to implement it. To get past this issue, Mozilla wants to work with the technical community to standardize the header across the industry, according to Fowler. It is also proposing that the feature be considered for upcoming releases of Firefox.

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Courtesy:http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20110124/tc_pcworld/newfirefoxfeatureblocksbehavioralads;_ylt=AlXHhNQyzJGhm5MssKh57mGor7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTNmbzhxZHEzBGFzc2V0A3Bjd29ybGQvMjAxMTAxMjQvbmV3ZmlyZWZveGZlYXR1cmVibG9ja3NiZWhhdmlvcmFsYWRzBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA25ld2ZpcmVmb3hmZQ--