mozilla

Community moves: Chris Blizzard leaves Red Hat for Mozilla

I'm late to the going away party on this one, but just noticed it on Stephen O'Grady's blog that Chris Blizzard is leaving Red Hat to join the evangelism team at Mozilla.

As for what?s next, starting in mid-November I will be joining the Evangelism team at Mozilla Corporation. Working with Shaver, Deb, Eric, John and Mark to help tell the story of the Open Web. My role will be to work with other open source projects that are well aligned with Mozilla?s mission and help them take part in writing that story.

I suppose … Read more

Red Hat coder moving to Mozilla

I'm a week late with this, but in case others also didn't notice, Christopher Blizzard, who has been a prominent programmer for Red Hat for nine years, has left to take a new job with Mozilla. He announced the move on his blog.

"Starting in mid-November I will be joining the evangelism team at Mozilla Corp....to help tell the story of the Open Web. My role will be to work with other open-source projects that are well aligned with Mozilla's mission and help them take part in writing that story," he said on his … Read more

Mozilla: We don't need your stinkin' money

That's not quite how Mitchell Baker stated it, but that's the underlying sentiment. Admirably, Mozilla is determined to be an independent entity focused on creating a great browser (and other software). It's not interested in being anyone's sycophant, including its beneficial partner, Google:

"We've spent a lot of time and energy making sure that Google understands that it cannot turn us into an arm of Google," said Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla and chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation. "The things that make Mozilla and Firefox a success [are] the product, and the community that cares about it."

First and foremost, we would protect those things," Baker said. "If the protection of those things would come into conflict with Google, or any of our search partners, we would opt for the community who built Firefox and love Firefox."… Read more

Mozilla's Prism to bring Web apps to desktop

Even the Mozilla Foundation, makers of the popular Firefox Web browser, thinks it's time to break out of the browser.

On Thursday, developers from Mozilla announced a project called Prism that will, along with other "experiments," make Web applications better resemble desktop programs.

The idea with Prism is that people can integrate their favorite Web applications with their desktop operating systems.

For example, a person could access Web-based programs Gmail or Facebook from the applications menu of Mac OS or Windows. Or they could create an icon for Facebook on their desktop that launches in its own … Read more

Google pays the bills at Mozilla

I knew that Google represented a majority of Mozilla's revenue, but 85 percent? That's what Mozilla recently reported, as pointed out by The Register. The good news is that it's in Google's interest to continue feeding a competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The bad news is that it has to do so much feeding.

In 2006, Mozilla pulled in revenues of $66,840,850. That's up 26 per cent from 2005, and as Baker says, most of it can be traced back to Mountain View. "As in 2005 the vast majority of this revenue is associated with the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox, and the majority of that is from Google." A customized version of Google.com pops up when you launch Firefox, and there's a Google search box tucked into the browser's top right-hand corner.

I use that search box all the time. But I also use Adblock Plus, so I never see a Google ad. Ever. Should Google worry? Should Mozilla?… Read more

Mozilla's 2006 revenue: $66.8 million

Mozilla, the group behind the open-source Firefox Web browser, disclosed its 2006 revenue Monday night: $66,840,850.

That's a 26 percent bump up from the $52.9 million that Mozilla garnered in 2005. And with 2006 expenses slicing off only $19.8 million, Mozilla has a tidy sum left at its disposal, even if it's no Microsoft.

"The highlight is that Mozilla remains financially healthy: we're able to hire more people, build more products, help other projects, and bring more possibilities for participation in the Internet to millions of people," foundation Chairman Mitchell Baker said in a blog posting. … Read more

Mozilla banks serious cash by generating serious community

Wow. It's ironic how much money can be made by giving something away. Not ad-supported. Not crippleware with a proprietary "upgrade." Just giving it away.

That's the lesson from Mozilla's latest numbers (PDF), as reported by Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's president.

Mozilla's revenues (including both Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corp.) for 2006 were $66,840,850, up approximately 26 percent from 2005 revenue of $52,906,602. As in 2005 the vast majority of this revenue is associated with the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox, and the majority of that is from Google. The Firefox userbase and search revenue have both increased from 2005. Search revenue increased at a lesser rate than Firefox usage growth as the rate of payment declines with volume. Other revenue sources were the Mozilla Store, public support and interest and other income on our assets. Mozilla expenses for 2006 were $19,776,193.

Not sure about you, but to me those numbers look pretty darn good. And in case you thought the momentum was slipping, consider the following:… Read more

New Meebo Firefox extension puts notifications in your Web chats

Meebo released their Firefox extension earlier this morning. It lets you chat with people on six different popular chat clients, or sign in to all at once with your Meebo ID using a sidebar in your browser. The 64k extension is aimed at solving the problem of providing active notifications for friends and conversation activity--one of the most widely requested features from Meebo users, and the hardest to implement without something that has deeper access of your browser. If you've ever used Meebo before and been annoyed you can't tell a whole lot about what's going on when it's not your main tab or when minimized this extension solves that with colored taskbar pop-ups. And as an added bonus for the lazy, there's an option to automatically sign into the service every time you start your browser.… Read more

New Meebo Firefox extension puts notifications in your Web chats

Meebo released its Firefox extension earlier this morning. It lets you chat with people on six different popular chat clients, or sign in to all at once with your Meebo ID using a sidebar in your browser. The 64k extension is aimed at solving the problem of providing active notifications for friends and conversation activity--one of the most widely requested features from Meebo users, and the hardest to implement without something that has deeper access to your browser. If you've ever used Meebo before and have been annoyed that you can't tell a whole lot about what's … Read more