Productization is the choice of ''default'' search engines, content and protocol handlers, bookmarks, links to recommended sites on the in-product pages, etc. The web services that make up the productization of Mozilla software are often specific to a local market. For example, a search provider can deliver a very good quality of search results — but only in a specific country or language, and we have to take this into account when considering default search engines for a locale. Hence there is a need to customize the set of default web services on a per-locale basis in order to ensure a good user experience across all locales.
Purpose of productization
There are two main purposes of adding default web services to Mozilla products:
- Provide users with useful and relevant content
- Demonstrate certain features of the product
The first one (provide users with useful and relevant content) is obvious: we want to improve our users’ experience on the Web, so we provide a couple of well-thought suggestions for different services. For example, we ship Firefox with 6 or 7 search engine plug-ins to make users’ lives easier when they’re looking for information, translation, products, multimedia, spelling and definitions, etc. Another example: when the user clicks on a mailto: link, we suggest a couple of possible handlers chosen from the applications installed on their computer. But we also suggest a few web-based clients (like Yahoo! Mail and GMail), so that if the user happens to use one of these in the browser, they don’t have to configure them.
The second purpose (demonstrate certain features of the product) is equally important: by providing these default services, we demonstrate particular features of the product, the ones which otherwise wouldn’t be as discoverable. For example, putting one sample news feed on the Bookmarks Toolbar in new profiles in Firefox helps in learning about the Live Bookmarks. Including a couple of search engines instead of one in the Search Toolbar can help users understand that they can add as many plug-ins as they wish.
This guide will walk you through the steps to successfully productizing your localization. The first page will cover performing research and preparing to submit productization recommendations. The following (and last) page will cover the technical steps to creating and submitting productization patches.