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Mozilla is taking another page out of Chrome’s playbook by dropping an “iconic” section of its UI: Firefox 57 will use a single bar for searching and navigation. While the search bar will not be removed altogether, it is now considered redundant and will be disabled by default. Most Chromium-based browsers, such as Opera and Brave, have already adopted this configuration.
Besides dropping the search bar and launching a new browser UI, Firefox 57 will also come with other major changes. The biggest of these is that Firefox will drop support for add-ons built on its legacy Add-ons API. Only add-ons built on the newer, Chrome-compatible WebExtensions API will work in Firefox 57. Currently, about a fifth of all Firefox add-ons have been ported to the new WebExtensions API. Further, Firefox 57 will also prevent accessibility apps from spying on users.
Besides dropping the search bar and launching a new browser UI, Firefox 57 will also come with other major changes. The biggest of these is that Firefox will drop support for add-ons built on its legacy Add-ons API. Only add-ons built on the newer, Chrome-compatible WebExtensions API will work in Firefox 57. Currently, about a fifth of all Firefox add-ons have been ported to the new WebExtensions API. Further, Firefox 57 will also prevent accessibility apps from spying on users.