Reports of Firefox’s death were greatly exaggerated.
For the last several weeks, we’ve seen a stream of speculative hype and forecasts of doom from many in the tech press. But today, all that’s been put to rest — like we always knew it would be:
- Google Renews Firefox Search Royalty Deal
- Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox
- Mozilla in 2012: why the mission of Mozilla is as important as ever
And we’re just getting started
As Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs points out, Mozilla is growing, leading, and doubling down on its non-profit mission in crucial new ways: working to create a web literate planet, building a generation of web makers, breaking commercial choke-holds through our vision for apps, setting mobile free, putting people in charge of their online identity, and pushing the web forward.
A nice triple for the open web
As Ryan Merkley pointed out, this week marks an interesting triple play for the open web:
1) Internet Explorer 6, the browser that once threatened to break the internet, is now officially slated for extinction.
Even Microsoft now concedes on its IE6 countdown site that there’s just no place for a non-standards compliant browser:
“…in an era of modern web standards, it’s time to say goodbye.”
Firefox created that era. We’re all now living in the open, standards-based and competitive world Mozilla fought to create.
2) Firefox 9 — the most awesome Firefox yet — just shipped today.
3) And the Mozilla Google deal is done, providing an important revenue stream to continue and expand our non-profit mission for years to come.
It’s a good day to be a Mozillian.
Great post and timing.
Perhaps you remember the frustrations that I expressed on Facebook.
I still have moments of weakness though.
http://www.zdnet.com/tb/1-111293#1_111293_2262902
Thanks Matt!
Hi, Ken. I was thinking of you when I was writing this, so nice to see your comment. 🙂
Seems that Google sees a future for Firefox. I was quite disappointed with Firefox performance-wise in the last year or two and thought Chrome would take completely over, but now I think Firefox is back on track.
I switched to Chrome because it was faster and more stable, but with the new version 9.0 Firefox provides the same. If I´m also using the Instantfox add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/instantfox/?src=sblog) i can also search superfast directly in the adress bar just like in Chrome, and together with that Firefox is at least as good for searching the web, if not better.
lol – your post was very nice, but did it really have to end with a Chrome advertisement??? http://i.imgur.com/lGy2K.png
O. M. G. The irony!
I somehow subscribed to ZDNet after reading one article just to keep track of it and wondering since then who the heck reads that kind of drivel – it seems like it employs the most uninformed and ignorant writers ever … but that’s besides the point 🙂
I just wanted to say that the Google deal is great revenue stream for FF for now but I do not think it is sustainable in the long run – Mozilla really should look for other sources of funding to break its dependence on Google … I suspect that’s why G created their own browser – to get around having to pay third parties for being the default search engine so clearly their long term plan is to diminish FF market share as much as possible (who woulda thought :D)
FF should work on educating it’s users (and people in general) that they *should* support financially what they like even when it’s “free” – show them reasons why and offer some symbolic perks if people do support it – like supporter only persona to show off, or using that open badges initiative or whatever … silly stuff but people do value it.
It should work on a community of supporters … and not a monolithic one either, there should be “rings” from least involvement to most involvement. I would surely join!
I know you guys are working furiously on ideas like that … just throwing a few more at you 🙂 with the core point being – G deal is nice but not the right way of doing it nor sustainable …
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I agree with you — and it’s a big part of what we’re trying to do going forward — in terms of really driving out the message that Mozilla is a non-profit (most people don’t know that, and when they find out they like us even more) and that it’s a non-profit you can join and support like any other:
https://donate.mozilla.org/page/contribute/protect-the-web
(well… maybe not *quite* like any other, but you get the idea! 🙂
We’re also growing our work through partnerships with organizations like the MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, and many others — which also provides new ways to resource great projects beyond the browser.