Posts Tagged ‘Mozilla’

Preview - In 2010, Billy May released an animation about an imaginary Mozilla Open Web smartphone. Called Seabird, the phone was praised as an evolutionary smartphone that, albeit imaginary, included the vision for a phone that not just copies Apple’s iPhone, but incorporates Mozilla philosophy as well as a vision that is years ahead of the products we are using today. Mozilla’s B2G, a mobile operating system that will be demonstrated at MWC next week, could carry that vision and emerge as the dark horse in the smartphone arena.

Mozilla announced that it has signed a “significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google”, which ends speculation that Google could possibly be moving on and not support Mozilla via the browser’s search box and the integrated default Google search anymore.

It did not take much to turn the world against Firefox. Just one Internet analysis firm that has, admittedly, the most comprehensive, publicly available data set on browser market shares available, released data, which indicates that Firefox has been surpassed by Chrome in popularity. It was enough to serve as a foundation for an Internet broadside against the browser that, not too long ago, carried the mind share of innovation in Internet software. Suddenly we are asking questions and wondering if Firefox can “survive” or if it is “toast”. The second salvo came today when reports questioning the state of negotiations of Mozilla’s royalties with Google surfaced. Does Google still need Mozilla? And if it does not, who needs Mozilla anyway? Do you?

One of our eagle-eyed readers (thanks, Raphael) sent me a note that Microsoft today announced a bingified version of Firefox.

There is not much we know about Boot To Gecko, Mozilla’s thin layer OS platform that will enable mobile devices to boot to a web interface that leverages open source APIs. CTO Brendan Eich recently revealed a bit more about the software that is scheduled for first demos in the first quarter for next year.

Mozilla released its annual State of Mozilla report, which shows the company in great financial shape. However, the income share of advertising/royalties, which is dominated by income drawn from Google, has grown to a new record 98.2%. As Firefox markets hare declines and as Mozilla increases the criticism that targets Google’s product strategy, is Mozilla’s future walking on thin ice?

Mozilla has reacted to reports that it will soon be surrendering its #2 position in the browser market to Google.

Firefox 7 is the third rapid release of the browser rolled out since the end of June. Some may consider the first true rapid release as the first that delivers noteworthy improvements over Firefox 4 – improvements that are more than just cosmetics. Firefox 7 is a shining example that Mozilla still has a strong impact on the Internet, yet it is confronted with an increasingly aggressive competitive field that could make it less relevant in the future.

ComodoHacker’s claim to have access to more certificate authorities (CAs) than just DigiNotar has apparently prompted Mozilla to ask all other CAs to investigate their CA infrastructures for data breaches and confirm specific security barriers in their certificate issuing process.

We are not quite sure whether Mozilla is setting itself up for self-destruction. We have witnessed a strange string of communication breakdowns and misunderstandings within Mozilla that indicate an increasingly complicated organizational structure that may be almost impossible to control. Does Mozilla need tighter control and new rules to protect itself from running into obvious obstacles over and over again?

Mozilla does not discuss product problems behind closed doors and employees as well key contributors rarely sugarcoat their opinions. A blog post published by Community Lead Tyler Downer rocks Mozilla as he claims that Mozilla Triage QA process is broken and he believes that the current rapid release process drowns Firefox in a sea of bugs with no land in sight.

Mozilla has an idea how it can bridge the gap between native apps and web applications: WebAPI will be developed as a set of HTML5 APIs and deliver consistent, web-based application interfaces that can be accessed by any HTML5-capable device, specifically smartphones.