Many experienced Internet users have the firm believe that toolbars are a relict of the past, that toolbars are to be avoided at all costs. The majority of regular users on the other hand do not seem to mind, which might change with this news.
Toolbars, like add-ons, can cause problems like slowdowns or increased memory usage. The Mozilla team has announced that they will block the Skype Toolbar in the Firefox browser. The Skype Toolbar, used to detect and convert phone numbers on web pages into clickable links that open the number directly in the voice communication software, is installed into Firefox whenever Skype is installed on the computer system. It can also be installed into Firefox when Skype is updated.
The Skype toolbar was blocked by Mozilla because of two reasons: The toolbar is one of the top reasons why the Firefox browser crashes. Mozilla mentions that it “was involved in almost 40,000 crashes of Firefox last week”.
In addition, it could “make DOM manipulation up to 300 times slower” which affects the page rendering time drastically.
Mozilla as a result as made the decision to block all Skype Toolbar versions that are currently available, including beta versions. The toolbar is added to the Mozilla Firefox blocklist which is used by all versions of the web browser to block software automatically.
The entry will be a soft-block which means that Firefox users who have the toolbar installed will be notified of the block. They will have the option to re-enable it to continue working with the Skype Toolbar.
The toolbar will be added in the next 48 hours to the blocklist, progress can be monitored in the bug listings 615799and 627278. This is not the first time the Skype Firefox extension was a cause for problems.
Firefox users who are using the Skype Toolbar actively may want to take a closer look at the Teliad extension which can convert numbers into clickable Skype links as well.
(via)
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I think “that toolbars are to be avoided at all costs” too.
Good. I thought it made the browser slow and clunky, too. Good to see this happening.
I’m with you Jakim – never yet found a toolbar that was worth the overheads and the trouble it caused. I’d like to see all toolbars and plugins at least blocked by default, and installable only by a positive choice.
Never liked that stupid Skype spy bar. In fact, I canceled my Skype account and went with Google Voice because of their invasive tactics.
I wish they would block any toolbar that tries to install itself on FF.