Mozilla shares security tool with rival browsers

OPEN SOURCE OUTFIT Mozilla has lived up to its values by offering a software tool to other web browsers that compete with its own Firefox, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Opera and others.

According to Computerworld, a schedule published last week showed that Mozilla was planning to switch on cross-browser functionality for its tool, which allows users to check for outdated plugins such as Adobe Flash and Apple's QuickTime media player.

Users can sometimes be completely unaware that their plugins are outdated, especially in cases where they can be downloaded to their computers without their knowledge. Mozilla's plugin checking tool tags outdated plugins with labels to inform users that that they need to download a new version.

Mozilla created its plugin checking tool last year after highlighting the fact that Adobe Flash was often out of date on many users' machines and was increasingly becoming a target for hacking attacks.

The tool works by pinging Mozilla's servers, which compare the plugin versions on the user's machine with the details of the current up-to-date version. If the tool shows the need for a user to update, a link is provided to do so.

Obviously a cleaner web means a faster web, meaning Firefox itself will work better. But Mozilla has done well here by creating a tool that is useful and needed, as well as helping out the other browser makers. µ