Porn collection put people off upgrading to Firefox 3

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Mozilla’s Security team has disclosed a very interesting piece of research which suggests people refused to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox because they were afraid the browser would expose their, ahem, private collection of websites.

In May, the company decided to have one last attempt at persuading the people on Firefox 2 to move up to Firefox 3, by hitting users of the old version with a pop-up that prompted them to upgrade. Those who declined were invited to fill out a questionnaire, asking them to reveal why they didn’t want the latest software.

The number one reason for not upgrading was the new location bar, and the fact that it delved into people’s bookmark collections to suggest sites as they typed. No fewer than 25% of Firefox 3 refuseniks cited this as the reason they wouldn’t upgrade. In fact, almost all of the people who provided feedback had tried Firefox 3, didn’t like what they saw, and headed back to Firefox 2.

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Firefox 4 looks awfully familiar…

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Firefox 3.5 is still fresh, but Mozilla has been busy mocking up its early concepts for the big move to version 4. Now, these images come with a great big disclaimer that “These are NOT FINAL! THEY ARE ONLY FOR BRAINSTORMING/EXPLORATION!“, but it’s interesting to see which direction Firefox could be taking. Take a look for yourself and form your own opinions, but from where I’m sitting it looks like a certain other browser seems to have had an influence on Mozilla’s designs.

The first design is fairly typical Firefox, with the tabs beneath the address bar (click to enlarge):

The Aero effect looks nice, and it’s a very clean interface, with only minor changes from the Firefox 3.7 concept images which Mozilla recently released. But there’s also a mockup with the tabs – unusually for Firefox – moved above the address bar: (more…)

Firefox 3.5 arrives – but without Google Gears

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Firefox 3.5 – the browser that’s suffered more delays than an NHS IT project – has finally arrived. You can download a copy from the Get Firefox site.

As Matthew Sparkes noted in his preview of Firefox 3.5, not much has changed on the surface, with the exception of a rather clumsily implemented Private Browsing mode.

However, one issue I’ve noticed after installing the browser this afternoon is that my Google Gears Add-on has been disabled, because it isn’t compatible with this latest build. That’s a significant issue for anyone who uses Firefox to access services such as GMail and Google Reader offline.

Why hasn’t Google got its Gears Add-on ready for the launch of 3.5? Is this the first sign that cracks are beginning to appear in the once harmonious Google/Mozilla relationship, now that Google has its own browser to worry about?

R.I.P Rick Petnel, Adblock Plus pioneer

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

You may never have heard of him – I know I hadn’t – but virtually every Firefox user owes a huge debt of gratitude to Rick Petnel, the man who built the best filter list for the indispensible Adblock Plus extension. He’s recently passed away after a short illness, and I know that I owe thanks to the man for making my browsing easier for the best part of the last decade.

The filter, dubbed EasyList, quickly became the first entry in the list of recommended filters shown after AdblockPlus is installed, and its success at picking up and blocking dozens of types of advertisement – from the simple banner ad to the more complex flash and java creations that now litter the web – is surely part of the reasons why Firefox is both popular and enjoys a far more favourable reputation than its main rival, Internet Explorer.

If you need further clarification as to Adblock Plus’ popularity, then look no further than Mozilla.org: the extension sits in both Mozilla’s list of recommended software and the leaderboard of most popular add-ons. In fact, it’s the most popular extension out there, downloaded more than 620,000 times per week and with over one thousand five-star reviews.

A blog post over at adblockplus.org mentions that Rick’s list ‘helped improve the browsing experience for millions of people’ and that’s no exaggeration – so next time you’re browsing a site and find that all those pesky adverts have disappeared before you’ve even loaded the page, raise your tea or coffee in a salute to the man who made it all possible.

Firefox loses its sugar daddy

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Google’s shock entry into the browser market might be bad news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but it could be terminal for Mozilla and Firefox.

Google is Mozilla’s sugar daddy. In 2006 (the latest figures we have available), a staggering 85% of Mozilla Corp’s revenue came from the homepage and search deal it has with Google. Firefox is almost entirely dependent on the company that’s just launched what could easily become its biggest rival.

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Mozilla team hit roadblock

Friday, August 1st, 2008

The Mozilla team has filed a worrying bug report that could potentially delay the release of Firefox 3.0.2; they’re all trapped in a hotel.

A rock slide has blocked off a road between Vancouver and Whistler, the latter of which was holding a Mozilla conference at the time. Those developers who got there early are trapped in, and those who were late are trapped outside. Either way, development is taking a hit.

Ever the resourceful bunch, one developer has thought up a solution.

“Hasham has proposed that we ride bears to Vancouver as a workaround for this bug. Bears can run up to 48 kilometers per hour and Whistler to Vancouver is about 300 kilometers. It would take approximately six hours and fixteen minutes if the bear ridden is running at top speed at all times. Realistically, the time needed is about eight hours. A bear can carry two to three people on average. There are approximately 220 people attending the Summit who flew. This gives us the need of about 74 bears should we boldly estimate that a bear can carry three people. The earliest departure time should be Thursday night.”

That’s the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that grabs market share from Microsoft.

Microsoft celebrates with Mozilla

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

This is a piece of class. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team has sent the Firefox pack a congratulatory cake to celebrate the launch of Firefox 3. Say what you want about their browser and Microsoft as a whole but it’s a grand gesture between two extremely fierce rivals.

It’s not the first time they’ve done it, either. The Microsoft team sent Mozilla a cake after the Firefox 2 launch [pictured], though it has to be said the new one is nicer – follow this link to go and see the Firefox 3 celebration cake.