Research and prep

Productization is the process of determining a user's choice of default search engines, content and protocol handlers (RSS Readers, Web Mail and Web Calendar), bookmarks, and links to recommended sites on the in-product pages as it relates to their locale. It is one of the most customizable and localizable parts of the product l10n process, as it goes beyond string translation.

We believe that localization teams are in the best position to provide recommendations on what local providers we can use for web services because you're in the market, work in the language, and know your users. This is, therefore, meant to be a guideline for how you should be formulating your recommendations. Here's the basic process:

1. File a bug under Mozilla Localizations>[your_locale] to request updates to your locale's productization preferences. If this is your first localization for a product, the l10n drivers will file this bug as part of the new product localization release process.
2. It is your l10n team's responsibility to perform research and identify the most appropriate web services for your region and present them in your bug as your informed recommendations.
3. If there's no existing collaboration with the site provider and Mozilla, ask for permission from the site provider to include it.
4. Ensure that your suggestions follow these parameters:

Search

There are typically five search plug-ins listed for Firefox desktop (only four for Firefox mobile):

Generic search

The default option should expose the quickest path to the best result on the world wide web for the user (indexing a large portion of the global www).

Global search

The second position can be used for the next best local language provider, meaning coverage within the local language and/or locale (indexing a smaller portion of the www but producing better local language results).

Local search

A good test is if you were to run a set of comparative queries; the secondary engine should produce the best local language results and the primary/default position should produce the best global results.

e-Commerce search

These search engines should allow users to get connected to new and used products they want to buy as quickly and painlessly as possible in a "trusted" site -- for example, choosing the most popular auction, general shopping, or classified type sites that have the desired user experience are good choices. There should be no more than two.

Specific interest search

Where users are using popular search engines to search more specific areas of interest that are very popular in your language or locale. There should be no more than two. In all cases, user experience should be taken into account and given preference for what is desired in that language/locale. If you have questions about what that means, please contact milos@mozilla.com or Milos on IRC.

RSS Readers and Content handlers

Productization for RSS readers and content handlers applies only to Firefox desktop. Your selections for default RSS readers and content handlers should follow these guidelines:

• Be translated in your language (because it makes the application unusable if it's not in your language
• Provide for the intended user experience (e.g., minimal to no advertisements within the user experience)
• No more than three (if possible) choices. Choosing based on popularity is fine.

Examples from various localizations

Some examples from en-US

Some examples from es-ES

Some examples from wo