We’ve seen some fantastic, new mobile add-on submissions over the past few weeks and months. Many new mobile add-ons for Firefox consider the capabilities and attributes of the mobile device, utilizing geolocation, screen size and mobile usability best practices, to name a few.

After reviewing a multitude of submissions and much debate around many worthy contenders, the judges from the AMO and Mobile teams have chosen ten (10) of the “best” (innovative, useful, compatible) Firefox mobile add-ons. We’re very pleased to announce our winners (and thrilled to start using their add-ons soon) and award them each with a brand new Nokia N900.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first Mobile Add-on Challenge!

Our ten Challenge Winners are as follows:

• AutoPager by Wind Li
  AutoPager automatically loads the next page of a site inline when you reach the end of the current page for infinite scrolling of content. It includes an adblock-type feature to allow you filter out the ads from the contents in the loaded page contents. By default, AutoPager works with a ton of sites, including Lifehacker, the New York Times, Digg, Google, etc.
• Flux by Marcio Galli
  Flux lets you take a screen shot a of Web page, draw on top of it, and save it to a local device or upload it to flickr. Check the demo of usage here.

• Geoguide by Fabice Desre
  Geoguide uses the geolocation service to provide localized information : map, pictures, weather, events and wikipedia entries.
• Hold4Tab by Almog B
  With Hold4Tab you can open a hyperlink in a new tab. Just press on the link for a second and a half and the link will be opened as a new tab.
• Lazy Click by Tamas Marki
  Lazy Click fixes missed clicks by applying them to the closest clickable object (link, button). This is especially useful on touchscreen displays, where it can be challenging to hit a smaller link or button with your finger.
• Mobilize by Attila Csipa
  Mobilize allows you to switch to mobile versions of sites. Is the Internet slow, are you in a weak-signal area? Is a site ‘too much’ for your device? Mobilize employs two strategies to find mobile versions of sites: 1. Use a predefined set of rules for sites that have special URL schemes (like facebook, amazon, google, wikipedia, slashdot, etc). 2. If no rule was found, apply some common naming schemes (like m. or mobile. prefix in domain name). Sites that fall into this group are engadget, digg, reddit and many more. This way a Firefox mobile user can switch to a mobile site without fiddling with the URL.
• NearMe, by Richard Klein
  Near Me helps you locate businesses in your vicinity by using your geolocation and running a local search. Near Me comes with several preset searches along with the ability to search for any other local item.
• Fastest Scroll in the West by Enrico Previdi
  This add-on solves a usability problem for the navigation in long or large pages on mobile phones. When you are on a long page, you can click the button on the left sidebar to activate a fast scroll. This is useful with big images as well.
• TwitterBar by Chris Finke
  TwitterBar allows you to post to Twitter from Firefox’s address bar. A small Twitter icon sits to the right of your address bar; clicking on it will post your tweet, and you can hover your mouse over it to see how many characters you have left. You can also post by typing “–post” at the end of your tweet. Clicking the Twitter icon when visiting a Web page will send a tweet containing the URL of the Web page you are currently viewing.
• Yummy by Nicolas Martin
  Add Feed support (RSS, Atom,…). Feed Viewer, Feed discovery in the visited pages, possibilities to subscribe to them as Live Bookmarks, and visualize updated Feed in your Bookmarks (bold) and their number.

Ah yes, the wonderful world of HTML5. Check out Arun Ranganathan demoing svg and canvas on the Nokia N900.

Doug Turner demos device orientation and geolocation on the Nokia N900.

Vladimir Vukicevic, principal engineer, Firefox, shows us a couple of WebGL demos on the Nokia N900. Read more about it and check out comments on HACKS.MOZILLA.ORG

Some useful newbies
So I’m jazzed about some recent mobile add-ons going through the AMO funnel. The first experimental add-on is called Lazy Click. It’s purpose is to fix potential missed clicks by searching the adjacent area and applying the click to the closest object that can accept clicks, for instance, a link or a button. So simple, yet so helpful! This browser extension will potentially help me avoid using my stylus or zooming in just to click a link.  My fat fingers thank you!

Firefound is another mobile,as well as desktop add-on that may help me avoid some unnecessary heart burn. This add-on helps you find your computer or mobile phone if it is lost or stolen. Every time your computer’s location changes, FireFound sends a secure message to a central server with its current location. You can then log into the server and see your computer’s current location. All of the location data is encrypted, so no one can find out where your computer or mobile is without your password. If you lose your computer or mobile, you can tell FireFound to clear your personal data (saved passwords, browsing history, etc.) if anyone starts your browser before you can retrieve it. Very cool.

Pre Add-on-Con Workshop
Add-on-Con takes place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on December 11, 2009. This conference is designed specifically for people who build and market browser add-ons. In honor of this, a couple of us are hosting a fun workshop on the eve of this conference to help answer questions, provide ideas and have some fun. Folks from the AMO and the mobile team will be to help walk through developing add-ons for mobile or desktop and show how to port your existing add-on to mobile. Food and drinks will be in abundance, so bring your appetite. All  the workshop details can be found here. Hope to see you there.

Less than two weeks left to take the Mobile Add-on Challenge
Develop or port your existing add-on to mobile on or before December 7, 2009 for your chance to win 1 of 10 shiny, new Nokia N900s.  We’re looking for innovative add-ons that are compatible with mobile. Judging will commence the week of the 7th and winners will be announced on or before December 14. Good luck. Check out the complete contest details.

CNET UK recently reviewed Firefox running on the Nokia N900 (see Firefox Mobile on Nokia N900 hands-on photos: Fire in your trousers).  I liked their  product shots of Firefox in action (who wouldn’t?) and wanted to share some of those shots with you all today.Nice pic of the Firefox start page.  We’ve incorporated a mini animation to help guide first-time users to navigate around the UI.

…A quick slide to the right reveals open tabs in thumbnail view so you can easily see what website you want to select. Tap on the corner of the thumbnail to delete the open tab, or tap on the button below to open a new one.

…A quick slide to the left shows the stowed away controls: bookmarking, back and forward, as well as preferences. Bookmark a page you like with one touch and edit the tag if you’d like.

Next to the new tab button is the WeaveSync button. Tap on that button and WeaveSync synchronizes and delivers your open tabs from your PC.  This is a great example of how you can work away at your desktop, get up and go, pull out your mobile, and have everything waiting for you (browsing history, saved passwords, bookmarks, as well as open tabs) just as you had left it.

By tapping on the Tools button and going to your preferences in Firefox, you can select the add-on button to search and install your favorite add-ons from your mobile device.  You can also manage your search engines here that appear at the bottom of the screen when you’re conducting a search with the Awesome Bar.

Ah yes, the glorious Awesome Bar in action. We know typing is hard so the Awesome Bar helps you get where you’re going in only a few keystrokes. With WeaveSync, the Awesome Bar gets that much more powerful as it recalls your browsing history from both your PC and mobile. See the search engines below so you can narrow your search further. Quick access to Wikipedia gets me one step closer to winning Bar Trivia Night.

Hope you enjoyed the photos…I know I did. I’ll continue to post the latest and greatest screenshots on my Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/missylooney/

Get a quick tour of Firefox for Maemo (beta 5) from Madhava Enros. Check out the officially branded Firefox browser that is fast, secure, customizable and syncs perfectly with the Firefox on your desktop.

It brings me great pleasure to announce our first (of many more we’re cooking up) developer challenges. Starting today, we’re challenging developers to build a Firefox add-on for mobile and submit it to AMO by December 7, 2009. Yep, that gives you approximately four long weeks to make an innovative extension that people can use when running around town, using Firefox on their mobile. Take the Mobile Add-on Challenge!

At the end of this time period, our judges (Nick Nguyen, Mark Finkle and myself) will choose 10 Firefox add-ons developed for mobile that best represent user experience and innovation.  Each winner will receive a brand spanking new Nokia N900! Check out the complete Mobile Add-on Challenge details.

Those who have already developed a Firefox add-on for mobile will be included in our judging process.  See Contest Rules to confirm your inclusion in the contest.

Good luck!

Meet members of the Mozilla mobile team as they give you a quick tour of the user interface, features and vision of Firefox for mobile.