Mozilla will be supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation to push for the legalization of iPhone jailbreaking with the U.S. Copyright Office.  Mozilla CEO John Lilly stated that “choice is good for users, and choice shouldn’t be criminalized.”  Jailbreaking an iPhone means that the device can accept software that is external from what is offered on iTunes.  Apple believes that accepting any external software is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

“This is not us criticizing Apple,” stated Mozilla CEO John Lilly. “But it’s the principle of the thing. Choice is good for users, and choice shouldn’t be criminalized. The Internet is too important for all of us for that.”

Some of the popular applications available on jailbroken iPhone applications include tethering applications.

Mozilla may have a bias against Apple because developing a browser for the iPhone would require them to use the Webkit rendering engine used for Safari.  “Given the choice, would we work on a platform where the sole company controlling it makes us unwelcome, or would we work on a platform, like Linux, where we are welcome? The answer is going to be easy for us,” Lilly stated in an interview with Computerworld.

Even if the U.S. copyright office grants jailbroken iPhones from being legal, Mozilla is still unlikely going to develop a browser for the iPhone.  This is the same case with Opera Software ASA.  It was reported earlier that Apple blocked Opera’s web browsing application from being added to the iTunes App Store.  Other companies supporting the EFF include Skype and Cydia.

The European Union and Microsoft don’t have the best relationship.  I believe part of the reason why Microsoft made the .docx file format is because of pressure from the EU.  But the EU doesn’t want to stop there either.  They gave Mozilla a seat at the table for the antitrust case against Microsoft for packaging Internet Explorer exclusively with the Windows operating system line.

Mozilla was granted “third-party status” last week.  This gives them the option to voice objections and view confidential documentation regarding the case.  The European Commission is the executive arm of the EU and are the ones pushing for the case.  The case was initiated by Opera, who gave two months for Microsoft to respond to the allegations.  Opera is another browser company.

Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of Mozilla wrote that she agreed with the EC’s allegation that packaging IE with Windows harms competition and consumer choice. Here is a portion of Mitchell’s statements from her blog:

The extent of the damage is so great that it makes it difficult to figure out an effective and timely remedy. I believe it’s worth some effort to try. It’s easy to look at Firefox market share and assume the problem is gone or the damage is undone. But that’s not the case. The drag on innovation and choice caused by Microsoft’s actions remains. At Mozilla we work to reduce this drag through direct action, and the results are gratifying. If the EC can identify an effective remedy that also serves to improve competition, innovation and choice, I would find it most welcome.

Mozilla will be delaying the third beta of Firefox 3 due to a large number of remaining bugs to fix.  This setback will not affect the release of the final version of Firefox 3.1.  Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 was expected to launch on January 26, but it will now be released on February 2.  This will be the last beta release for Firefox version 3.1.

“Right now we’re not expecting this to delay our shipping target of late in the first quarter,” stated Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox.  There are about 15 bugs blocking the Beta 3 release.  One of them has to do with a new privacy mode setting within Firefox, a feature that is similar to what is available in the Google Chrome browser.  Several bugs have to do with the ability to drag tabs within the browsing window. The Beta will also include a faster JavaScript engine.

“Of course, Mozilla will continue to abide by our policy of only shipping software ‘when it’s ready,’” added Beltzner, “meaning that we’ll never publish a release that doesn’t meet our strict criteria for quality, stability and performance.”

[via PC World]

Google has been the default search engine company for the Mozilla Firefox browser.  This is mainly due to Google’s financial support of Mozilla.  In 2006, Google paid Mozilla about $57 million which amounted to 85% of their revenue.  But now the Russian version of Firefox will be dropping Google as the default browser and switch it to Google’s Russian rival Yandex.

According to a blog post by Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson, Russian Firefox users “wanted direct access to the Yandex search services in official Firefox RU builds” based on studying trends of Firefox Yandex builds.  For the Firefox 3.1 Russian locale builds, Yandex will become the default search engine.  This version will be released in the next few weeks.

In the last few months, Yandex was planning on going IPO, but postponed it until the economy recovers.  Yandex gets about 50 million searches per day.

[Via Webware & TechCrunch]

The vast majority of Mozilla’s revenue comes from Google. In 2007, Mozilla pulled in around $60 million thanks to Google. That $60 million translates to about 88% of Mozilla’s revenue. The default homepage on Firefox is Google.  When a user searches Google using the default Mozilla homepage, Google pays  Mozilla a share of the ad dollar made on each click. (more…)

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the default search in the upper search box in the Firefox browser. This is because Google paid a good price to be there. And Google is helping Mozilla stay alive as they are Mozilla’s biggest revenue source.

“We’ve just renewed our agreement with Google for an additional three years. This agreement now ends in November of 2011 rather than November of 2008, so we have stability in income,” stated Mitchell Baker, Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation. “We’re also learning more all the time about how to use Mozilla’s financial resources to help contributors through infrastructure, new programs, and new types of support from employees.”

Mozilla’s revenue was $52.9 million in 2005 and $66.8 million in 2006. The 2007 numbers aren’t yet known. Over those two years, it is believed that 85% of Mozilla’s revenue was generated from their partnership with Google. Now that the deal is extended to November 2011, Mozilla will continue to depend on the search engine company to keep their employees paid, run an office, and have all the server power they need.

Mozilla Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox is getting closer to reaching Alpha mode.  The browser has reached milestone 6 out of 8.  Testers can install Fennec on the Nokia N8X0 already.  Fennec will include tabs on Firefox mobile browsers.

In the next week, Fennec will have additional stability performance testing and will have more bugs fixed.  “Fennec” actually a code name for the effort to build a mobile version of Firefox.  The released version may have a different name. 

Below are some of the screen shots of the Fennec browser.  These image screen shots are from Mozilla’s Wiki page.

Related Link:
1. ZDNet

What does 233,000 Americans have in common with 39,000 Canadians and 24,000 Australians?  All of them have pledged to download Firefox 3.0 tomorrow.  The Mozilla Foundation hopes to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours beginning on June 17 and ending on June 18.  The official time to start downloading is 10AM PDT on June 17.

This is the first time a software download will mark the pages in the Guinness World Record.  Mozilla is even hosting a BBQ at their office in Mountain View, Calif. as part of the celebration.  Firefox Release 3 is already available for download, but still has some bugs.

Currently 175 million people use Firefox and the browser is available in 45 languages across 230 countries.  Uriridiakoghene Onovakpuri, a student at UC Berkely created a Firefox World Record Facebook group.  The group has over 30,000 members.

 

Mozilla has recently published Firefox 3 Beta 3.  Firefox 3 has few memory problems but some of the add-ons are not compatible.  One of the issues that I saw with previous versions of Firefox 3 was that it tended to freeze up with pop-up windows on the Wordpress Admin.

Some of the improvements over Firefox 2 includes:
1.) One-click Site Info: When clicking on the favicon next to the URL on the address bar, Firefox 3 relocates users to see who owns the site.
2.) Malware Protection: Firefox’s Malware feature displays a warning when entering a web site that is known for intalling viruses, spyware, and malware.
3.) A New Download Manager: Firefox has a new Download Manager add-on that displays where downloaded files come from.
4.) Podcasts/Videocasts: Podcasts and Videocasts embedded on Firefox can be associated with preferred media players.
5.) Linux/Mac Integration: There is a Firefox theme and add-ons with toolbars, icons, widgets, spell-checkers, and web forms to make it feel like its operating on a Mac.  The same thing is possible for Linux through a GTK theme.
6.) Star Button (Bookmarks): This feature is similar to Internet Explorer 7.0.  Clicking on the star one time saves it as a bookmark and a second click allows users to file and tag bookmarks.
7.) Speed: The speed is faster.  Firefox uses Cairo, an API that advances 2D drawing load-time.
8.) Auto-complete for address bar: When typing in letters or a URL in the address bar, a pull-down menu will display URLs with the favicon next to it.  Clicking on it directs the user to the URL.  It speeds up navigation using the browser.
9.) Memory usage: 350+ memory leaks were fixed in the new browser.  There XPCOM cycle collector eliminates other memory leaks.
10.) Windows Vista Parental Leaks: Accounts with parental controls on Windows Vista has file downloads disabled on Firefox.
The download is available in 34 languages.  Here are some of the release notes.

Mozilla Firefox has just 400 million downloads. Firefox is certainly becoming a browser of choice for many Internet users with a 14.55% market-share. And this is while Microsoft Internet Explorer comes bundled with the Windows operating system. Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross founded Firefox through the Mozilla project that was sponsored by Netscape. Netscape and Mozilla’s relationship turned sour because Mozilla wanted to be an open source project where a community of external contributors can help with the development whereas Netscape’s agenda was only to use inside employees. The problem is that the inside employees were controlled by product managers with no clear direction.

Around mid-2001, Netscape had laid off many employees and Mozilla was able to get independence as a non-profit organization. When Firefox 1.0 shipped, over a million downloads were made on the first day, 10 million downloads in 10 days, and 100 million donwloads after about a year.

Blake Ross is now a Facebook employee since the social network bought his company, Parakey. Mozilla Firefox 3.0 specifications are on the Mozilla wiki page.

Information Sources:
[1] Inside Firefox – The Inside Track on Firefox Development

At the beginning of the year, Firefox was used by 9.6% of all Internet users.  By the end of 2006, Firefox was used by 14% of Internet users, which is a 50% increase in one year.  Despite releasing a new version of Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft took a hit in the browser market this past year.  Internet Explorer marketshare dropped from 85.1% to 79.6%.

Apple Computer Inc.’s Safari browser jumped from 3.1% to 4.2%.  Opera Web browser grew from 0.6% to 0.9%.  Lastly, AOL LLC’s Netscape dropped from 1.24% to 0.9%.

In October, Firefox Version 2.0 was released and since then Firefox users have been continuously growing.  I believe that part of Firefox’s growth is also responsible for Internet Explorer’s application slower load time.  I noticed that Internet Explorer 7.0 was exceptionally slower than Firefox.  However, the new build of Internet Explorer definetely has catered to users that prefer tabbed browsing.  For PC/Mac users that have 2.0 GHz+ processors, I believe that the application load time difference between IE and Firefox may not be as noticeable.

[Source: Computerworld]

Blake Ross, a young software developer known for his efforts in the Mozilla’s Firefox development pointed out in his blog that Google is now starting to give “tips” to users about other Google-owned software. Ross also points out that Ask and Yahoo! have been doing this with their search services too, but Google has a reputation to keep in their TOS to not “be evil.”

If you search for ‘Photo Sharing,’ it tips users to use Google’s Picasa. If you search for ‘Calendar,’ users are tipped to “Try Google Calendar.” And if you search for ‘Blog,’ then Google recommends you to “Try Blogger.”

Ross wrote: “The tips are different—and bad for users—because the services they recommend are not the best in their class.” I couldn’t agree more. I think the best photo-sharing website is not the Picasa software, but Flickr. I believe the best blogging software is Wordpress, and I don’t really use calendar software, I just e-mail myself upcoming important events in ALL CAPS.

But Ross gives a worthy suggestion for a fix. Ross suggested that when searching for stock quotes on Google’s search engine [example: GOOG search], Google Finance, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, MarketWatch, CNN Money, and Reuters are all recommended at the top.

“Would Google complain if Microsoft informed users about Live Search when they typed Google.com into Internet Explorer’s address bar? Don’t roll your eyes: it would just be another innocuous tip presented to a user en route to a destination. Google owns one of the Web’s command lines, and Microsoft owns the other” stated Ross. “How much does a result have to look like a Result to cross the line? Google promised not to be the type of company that needs to ask.”

It wasn’t too long ago when Mozilla released Firefox 2.0, but now the company has released the specifications that will be placed into Firefox 3 in a wiki format. The software development life cycle is expected to complete within 12 months. The team is developing Firefox 3.0 based on the Gecko 1.9 Roadmap format which is what Mozilla had followed for the Firefox 2.0 development as well.

One of the new expected features of Firefox 3 is called “places” which will be placed to the left of the tabs. This is similar to the “Add to Favorites” and “Favorites Center” feature in Internet Explorer 7.0.

As far as tabbed browsing goes, Firefox will also implement a feature so that new tabs will open to the right of the active tab, which is also similar to Internet Explorer 7.0. However, a new feature that is unique will allow a group of URLs to open on one click of bookmarks.

According to TGDaily.com, another feature that will be improved from Firefox 2 is a feature that the new Internet Explorer lacks, which is auto-saving data in forms and posts. As a blogger, I have experienced the loss of data when writing posts by accidentally clicking on a link that replaces the page that I am writing the post on. Microsoft has added an alert button to alleviate this problem, but in some circumstances the alert does not show up. TGDaily reports: “version 3.0 will have increased session saving capabilities, including the ability to save all data logged in a single session, such as data entered into forms and posts, and the entire page viewing history.”

Mozilla and Microsoft has been having a browser war for quite some time now. In my opinion, I think that it is somewhat frustrating that between both browsers, one supports a tool that another browser doesn’t, so it is difficult to settle on one browser.

The tools I am referring to is the Facebook and Alexa toolbars. Internet Explorer supports the Alexa toolbar, but Firefox doesn’t. However, Firefox supports the Facebook toolbar, but Internet Explorer doesn’t. In terms of speed though, Firefox is clearly the winner.

Yet when it comes to embedding videos from YouTube on Wordpress and having it work properly, I have had the most luck with Internet Explorer. If anyone has had luck embedding videos on to Firefox while using Wordpress, definitely let me know.