Norton Toolbar Support for Firefox 3.5.5 Fixed

 

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Posted on 13 Nov 2009 at 12:38

Symantec has released an update to correct the toolbar's disappearance in the latest version of Firefox.

The latest major update to Norton Internet Security 2009 has returned the Norton Toolbar to users of Firefox 3.5.3 to 3.5.5. The issue had been ongoing since the release of Firefox 3.5.3 in September, to the frustration of Norton users.

Norton Toolbar is a browser plug-in that alerts you to malicious websites when you visit them, helps to remember your login details and, more helpfully, checks your search results for dangerous sites before you click on them.

The current concern for many Firefox users is whether this will happen again next time they update their browser. It's common to have to wait a day or two for your favourite extensions and plug-ins to be updated to support the latest version, but extended delays aren't tolerated well, particularly for something as important as malware defence.

We asked Symantec if it expected this to be a regular occurrence and were told that this would depend on what changes were implemented in any particular update. However, Symantec's Con Mallon reassured that "we want to keep the disruption to our customers to a minimum and incidents like this are to be avoided".

Norton Toolbar is genuinely useful utility, but it's not unique - Finjan's free SecureBrowsing plug-in performs similar checks on your search engine results and AVG Technologies also has a similar product. This means that there are alternative solutions if your browser-based protection fails.

Author: Kat Orphanides