Mozilla is working on a new API for Firefox that makes it possible to run the same extension code on Chrome, Opera and the Windows 10 browser Edge. In a blog post on the Mozilla website the browser developer today revealed Web Extensions, a new API that is Blink compatible.
Blink is a fork of the open source browser engine Webkit which e.g. powers Apple's Safari browser. Google Chrome was also powered by Webkit but the search giant decided to fork Webkit and call it Blink. Opera uses Blink after dropping its own engine and also Samsung and Intel contribute to the code. Blink was forked from Webkit to make it simpler and to give greater flexibility for adding new features.
With the Web Extensions API it becomes possible for developers to write code for an extension which then runs on multiple browsers.
"With this API, extension developers should be able to make the same extension available on Firefox and Chrome with a minimal number of changes to repackage for each platform", Mozilla writes on its blog.
It's expected that also Windows 10's default browser, Edge, will support Chrome extensions. That means that extensions that adhere to the Web Extensions API will at least run on Chrome, Opera, Edge and Firefox.
Mozilla further announced that Electrolysis which uses a separate operating system process to run Web content is nearly ready for mainstream usage and will soon become part of the regular Firefox versions. Electrolysis should improve performance and security of the browser.
