mozilla

Mozilla's plan for 2012: Break the ecosystem lock

Mozilla is best known as the developer of Firefox, but it's reaching well beyond the browser with a 2012 strategy that strives to use the open Web to counteract ecosystem lock-in.

Firefox embodied Mozilla's effort to counter the damage that Microsoft's browser dominance caused on the Web. But now, as revealed in Mozilla 2012 plans published Sunday, the non-profit organization is putting the crosshairs on other big competitors, too: Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Those companies, along with Microsoft, each are building an ecosystem encompassing devices, operating systems, app stores, and apps. People should be worried about getting … Read more

Firefox finally enriches New Tab page

Chrome's got it. Internet Explorer's got it. Safari's got it. And Opera was the first to debut it. Finally, and currently available in the developer's Aurora build, Firefox users will be able to get a personalized New Tab experience.

Much like the competition, Firefox's version bases the sites shown to you in the New Tab page by the most commonly visited sites in your location bar. Previously, Firefox could only show a visual representation of favorite or recently visited sites in a New Tab through third-party add-ons.

You must be running Firefox 12 Aurora (download for Windows | … Read more

Firefox 11 to get add-on sync

Following the update to Firefox stable earlier this week, Mozilla released yesterday updates to its Aurora and Beta versions that introduce some pretty hefty changes for Firefox on PCs.

Firefox 11 beta (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) presages some hefty changes for the browser. The biggest one, which wasn't present in the Firefox 11 Aurora release, is add-on sync. You'll now be able to mirror the same add-on installations and settings across multiple desktops. Though Google Chrome has been able to sync add-ons for some time, its implementation has been notably uneven, so it'll be interesting to … Read more

Mozilla preps the Web to push

Mozilla engineers have begun work on a new API for Web sites that will allow them to notify you when they update, similar to how a mobile app notifies you that it has new content for you to check out. But what it really sounds like is a way to drag the concept of RSS feeds into Web 2.0--finally.

Jeff Balogh, a Web developer at Mozilla, explained in a blog post earlier this week that the push application programming interface is designed to extend the idea of the push services we already experience on iOS and Android to the … Read more

Better developer's tools, add-on compatibility kick off Firefox 10

The bottom line: Firefox 10 is a worthy expression of Mozilla's ideals. The browser is competitively fast, sports a new minimalist look, and includes some excellently executed features. Unfortunately, that describes most of Firefox's competition, too.

Please note that the First Look video below is still applicable to Firefox 10, as is this Firefox How To collection, even though it features Firefox 4.

Review: For those of you who spent 2011 away from the Internet, it's the year that Firefox went from annual major-point updates to a Chrome-style quick-release cycle. How quick? A new major version number … Read more

Firefox simplifies add-on updates; no native Android interface--yet

Web developer site-building tools are only sexy to developers, but they get a big makeover in today's update to Firefox and that will affect how developers connect to the people who use their sites.

Firefox 10 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux | Android) also dramatically streamlines add-on compatibility, includes a new Full Screen API, and updates WebGL. The Android version, meanwhile, makes some minor improvements as the bulk of development on the mobile version focuses on the native Android interface, currently scheduled for the next stable release.

The biggest change that most Firefox users will see in version 10 is … Read more

Every moment counts in Mozilla's bid for mobile relevance

Mozilla could soon release a beta version of its dramatically overhauled Android browser, a crucial step in the organization's attempt to stay relevant in the tech industry's mobile transformation.

Or it might have to wait six weeks. And, given Mozilla's continuing absence from the explosively growing mobile market, every moment counts.

After the first versions of Firefox for Android browser suffered from slow startup, Mozilla chose to create an Android-only version that employed the native user interface of Google's mobile operating system. That meant forsaking add-ons that historically have been built with Mozilla's own XUL … Read more

Mozilla reaches 40 million people in anti-SOPA campaign

During yesterday's Web protest against antipiracy legislation, Firefox blacked out its start page and redirected users to Mozilla's anti-SOPA and PIPA action page. It also posted 9 million messages about the two pending bills on Facebook, Twitter, and in its Firefox + You newsletter.

As a result, more than 40 million people were reached, announced Mozilla News today.

"All these steps were aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of people on the poorly drafted anti-piracy legislation--SOPA and PIPA--pending in Congress," Alex Fowler wrote in The Mozilla Blog.

According to Fowler, around 30 million people in the U.… Read more

What's coming in Firefox 11

Big changes are arriving in the developer's build of Firefox for Android in a bid to make it more appealing, while the significantly more popular desktop version is getting several noteworthy but smaller changes, the company announced at the end of 2011.

Available for download now, the first versions of Firefox 11 Aurora for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android came out just after the stable build of the browser updated to version 9. The Android update is again the more notable release, as the new native Android interface reaches a wider audience. For the first time, the browser also … Read more