Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Mozilla

Mozilla and Google Concerned About Windows RT Not Supporting Chrome and Firefox

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:53:53 +0000

Windows RT (RT is for runtime) will be a version of the Windows operating system for ARM device like tablet computers with a touch screen interface will only run software available through the Windows Store or included in Windows RT. Google and Mozilla are not happy with this because they believe that they will be locked out. Mozilla said that Microsoft is preventing them from bringing a competitive version of Firefox to Windows RT. Other browsers will not get the same access to the same operating system abilities that IE10 gets. Google has also given their opinion on the issue in the statement below:

We share the concerns Mozilla has raised regarding the Windows 8 environment restricting user choice and innovation. We’ve always welcomed innovation in the browser space across all platforms and strongly believe that having great competitors makes us all work harder. In the end, consumers and developers benefit the most from robust competition.

According to Mozilla spokesman Asa Dotzler:

First, Microsoft has a browser that runs in Classic mode on Windows ARM. They are not allowing us that same access to run our browser on Classic. Second, Microsoft has a browser that runs in Metro mode on Windows ARM that has access to rich APIs that they are denying to third-party Metro browsers on Windows ARM. So, we are denied the ability to deliver any browser on Classic, and we are denied the ability to build a competitive browser on Metro.

Google and Apple have both allowed other browsers on Android and iOS. Firefox and Opera Mobile are among the browsers available for Android. Opera Mini is on iOS devices, but they do not have their own browser engine so it uses Opera’s servers to render websites.

Mozilla To Present Mozilla Marketplace At Mobile World Congress

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:02:53 +0000

Mozilla will be unveiling the Mozilla Marketplace at Mobile World Congress. Mozilla Marketplace will allow developers to submit open web technology (HTML5/JavaScript/CSS) apps. Marketplace is a way for Mozilla to stay competitive with the Google Chrome Web Store. Mozilla’s upcoming smartphone and tablet OS will also be using the Mozilla Marketplace. Mozilla will be announcing at MWC that they will be partnering with LG to make a developer-oriented mobile device.

Firefox 13 will be the first version of the Mozilla Firefox browser to have Marketplace. It will have an app launcher as part of the Home Tab app launcher. Firefox 13 will be released at the beginning of June. Boot to Gecko (B2G), Mozilla’s upcoming smartphone and tablet operating system, will also be using the Marketplace. It will be open source so carriers will be able to create their own Open Web Marketplace and populate it with their own apps. B2G is a cut-down version of Linux that loads Gecko, the rendering engine behind Firefox.

Proposed Copy Protection On HTML5 Video Causes Debate

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:17:21 +0000

Mozilla has criticized a proposed web standard that would have DRM for HTML content implemented. The proposal was put forward by Google, Microsoft, and Netflix developers. It is meant to allow companies to add protection to HTML5 streaming audio and video. This is the reason why some content providers have not adopted the technology.

The proposed structure would need to rely on a “content decryption module (CDM)” possibly through hardware or firmware. With this CDM, a company would send a key to decrypt to a portion of HTML.

However Google’s Ian Hickson said that this proposal was unethical and that it did not provide enough content protection to make it worth implementing. Chris Pearce of Mozilla asked how the proposal would affect open source browsers, which could be patched to capture streaming audio and video. Netflix’s Mark Watson said that hardware solutions could some those problems and content could be streamed through a “protected media pipeline.”

Google Will Be Paying Mozilla About $300 Million PER YEAR For The Search Deal

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:29:10 +0000

Google and Mozilla have struck a search deal for another three years. Google will be paying a little bit under $300 million to renew the deal. This is a huge jump from a previous arrangement that Google had with Mozilla. Google had to outbid other companies like Microsoft and Yahoo! for the search deal. The $900 million agreement is the minimum revenue guarantee for delivering search queries that will be garnered by consumers using Firefox.

Microsoft was pushing heavily for the deal because they are spending a lot of money to grow Bing’s market share. Although Microsoft still has the dominant market share with the Internet Explorer browser, Google is quickly catching up with their Chrome browser.

[AllThingsD]

Google Signs Another 3 Year Deal With Mozilla

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:14:35 +0000

Looks like Mozilla has nothing to worry about after all… at least for now. Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has signed a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Mozilla. Google will remain the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox for at least another 3 years.

“Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world,” stated Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs. The terms of the commercial agreement are currently subject to confidentiality requirements. What we do know at Pulse2.com is that in 2010, Mozilla made $123 million in revenues and 84% of it came from Google.

Mozilla NEEDS Google appears to be highly dependent on them. But at the same time, they are seeing their market share constantly being chipped away by Google’s own Chrome browser. Talk about a catch-22.

[Mozilla Blog]

Homeland Security Wants Mozilla To Take Down MafiaaFire Redirector Add-On

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:54:32 +0000

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent Mozilla a take-down request for the Firefox add-on called MafiaaFire Redirector. MafiaaFire Redirector allows Firefox users to access websites, whose domain names were taken down by the government over copyright issues. Mozilla responded by asking the government why they should remove the add-on. About two weeks have gone by without a response.

Mozilla asked why the add-on is considered unlawful and whether Mozilla is legally obligated to remove the add-on. Mozilla has not received a court order either. “One of the fundamental issues here is under what conditions do intermediaries accede to government requests that have a censorship effect and which may threaten the open internet,” stated Mozilla lawyer Harvey Anderson.

A lot of the domains that were seized by the government have been relocated to other domains that the government cannot take down. The government has the ability to take down .com, .net, and .org domain names.

[Wired]

jQuery Creator John Resig Joins Khan Academy

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:50:54 +0000

John Resig, the creator of javascript library jQuery, has left the Mozilla Foundation to join the online education organization Khan Academy. Resig had worked at Mozilla for more than 4 years when he joined in January 2007 as a Javascript Evangelist. At Khan Academy, Resig will continue to work on jQuery. Resig plans to work on Khan Academy’s iPad application as well. [ReadWriteWeb]

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4 Candidate

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:16:44 +0000

Mozilla has released Mozilla Firefox 4 Release Candidate for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Firefox 4 has exited the beta cycle and is available in over 70 languages. Firefox 4 users will be automatically updated to this version. Over 70% of the Firefox Add-ons are now compatible with Firefox 4 too. You can download Firefox 4 Release Candidate here: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/RC/. [Mozilla Blog]

Mozilla Roadmap Draft: Firefox 4-7 To Be Released This Year

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:47:51 +0000

According to the Firefox official roadmap, Mozilla wants to ship Firefox versions 4-7 this year. The primary focus of Firefox this year is to make sure that there the time between any user interaction and feedback from the browser is less than 50 milliseconds. Below is a list of features that each version would have:

Firefox 5: Absorb the Account Manager and F1 Simple Sharing.

Firefox 6: Focus on Web applications framework, JavaScript optimization, OS X 10.7 support, CSS3 and HTML5 to be added to Gecko rendering engine.

Firefox 7: Split everything into separate processes and change to XBL support.

[Download Squad]

Aza Raskin Steps Down From Mozilla To Start A Company Called Massive Health

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:23:17 +0000

Aza Raskin is leaving the Mozilla Foundation in order to create a new start-up company called Massive Health. Raskin is the man behind the Firefox Mobile concept and also worked on the geolocation specification for the W3C standards.

“Each of us has a unique ability. I want to use mine—the knowledge to make products which are disruptively easier and more enjoyable to use—to change people’s lives. Life-changing not in the sense of a new social website or better email, but in making people’s lives materially better by helping them get and stay healthy. Anyone that’s been sick, overweight, or had to deal with a doctor knows that health is a field in dire need of humane design,” wrote Raskin on his blog.