The Mozilla Blog

News, notes and ramblings from the Mozilla project

Posts in the “Mozilla News” category

Mozilla to Join Tomorrow’s Virtual Protests of PIPA/SOPA

Starting at 8:00 am Eastern tomorrow, Mozilla will join with other sites in a virtual strike to protest the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These bills protect content at all costs, creating the opportunity for abuse and damaging the Web for all of us.

We will be blacking out the default start page in Firefox and redirecting key Mozilla websites to a special action page. Both steps are aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of our users on this important issue.

Mozilla’s Chairwoman Mitchell Baker has a blog post that further explains our concerns with the legislation, using a powerful analogy from the physical world to highlight how misdirected PIPA and SOPA are at this point.

These steps are complimentary to those participants in tomorrow’s online protest who are focusing on taking websites offline. We’re giving this degree of in-product visibility on PIPA/SOPA with the hope that this precedent-setting move will motivate people to ask their Congressional representatives to carefully consider all the facts and viewpoints before moving either of these bills forward.

This campaign will not effect people’s experience with Firefox, however, we hope it raises awareness and engagement. We’ll return people’s default start page and stop redirecting traffic at 8:00 pm Eastern tomorrow.

Mozilla Timeline on SOPA/PIPA

From the beginning, Mozilla has been a key force in rallying opposition to PIPA and SOPA.  On Nov 16, as part of the American Censorship campaign, Mozilla censored its logo and used the power of our start page in Firefox to engage our community. The results were awesome, generating thousands of emails and calls to Congress, and helped change the tenor of the public debate in the House.

November 2011

  • General Counsel Harvey Anderson’s first warning to Mozilla community of the pitfalls of the proposed legislation
  • Mozilla hosts planning meeting for Silicon Valley companies, startups, academics and NGOs to discuss response to SOPA/PIPA
  • Mozilla censors its logo and directs web site traffic and Firefox users to take action in the House on SOPA, raising awareness on the bills with hundreds of millions of our users
  • Mozilla releases a joint letter with Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zynga, AOL and Yahoo!
  • Mozillians attend SOPA hearing in DC and visit offices in the House to voice our concerns with the bill
  • Mozilla leaders meet with numerous House and Senate members and their staff to explain our concerns about the bills

December 2011

  • Mozilla Chairwoman Mitchell Baker co-authors an open letter to Washington with 16 other Internet leaders and founders
  • Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs goes to the White House to discuss SOPA/PIPA with Obama Administration
  • Mozillians continue meeting with House and Senate members and their staff to explain impacts to openness, free expression and security

January 2012

Delivering a Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release

We are pleased to announce that the proposal for an Extended Support Release (ESR) of Firefox is now a plan of action. The ESR version of Firefox is for use by enterprises, public institutions, universities and other organizations that centrally manage their Firefox deployments. Releases of the ESR will occur once a year, providing these organizations with a version of Firefox that receives security updates but does not make changes to the Web or Firefox Add-ons platform. We have worked with many organizations to ensure that the ESR balances their need for the latest security updates with the desire to have a lighter application certification burden.

Online life is evolving faster than ever and it’s imperative that Mozilla delivers improvements to the Web and to Firefox more quickly to reflect this. Providing updates to Firefox more frequently allows us to secure users against emerging threats and provide the platform for innovation that today’s rich and compelling Web experiences demand. However, this created challenges for organizations that have to deliver lots of mission-critical applications through Firefox, so we worked closely with the Mozilla Enterprise User Working Group to develop the Mozilla Firefox ESR plan.

Mozilla is committed to providing the best Web experience for people everywhere, and our goal for the Firefox ESR is to make it simpler for companies, public institutions, organizations, and institutions that manage their desktops to deploy Firefox in those environments. Over the last few months we received great feedback on the initial proposal from the Mozilla community and strongly believe that the ESR meets that goal.

Implementation specifics will be posted within a week to the mozilla.dev.planning newsgroup and the EWG mailing list. If you’re interested in the ESR or discussions around deploying Firefox in a managed environment, we’d encourage you to join the Mozilla Enterprise Working Group and participate in its discussions and monthly conference calls. To join this group, please see the Enterprise wiki page for additional information.

Mozilla seeks designers to supercharge learning in digital badges competition

 

Design digital badges for NASA, Intel, Disney-Pixar, the U.S. Department of Education and other leading organizations in the “Badges for Learning” competition. Deadline for entries is January 17.

Help the world level up with NASA, the MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla.

Mozilla is seeking designers and developers to participate in the $2 million “Badges for Learning” competition. Participants will have the chance to design digital badges for more than 60 different leading organizations, all aimed at providing recognition for learning that happens on the web or outside of school.

Winners will receive funding from the MacArthur Foundation to make their designs a reality, plus the opportunity to collaborate with Mozilla and other leading organizations in education, industry and government.

The goal: supercharge 21st century learning by building a free, open source badge system that helps people around the world use the Web to gain new skills and level up in their life and work.

Learn more or get involved here.

Firefox: 2011

Firefox helped make the Web more awesome in 2011. We released Firefox 4 with Sync to hundreds of millions of people worldwide; we launched Firefox for Android; added the new Firefox Aurora development channel; adopted a faster release cycle; and introduced Do Not Track to the industry. Now we’re excited to share some of the highlights of Firefox this year in facts, figures and pictures. It’s all part of our commitment to innovating on behalf of people everywhere and continuing to build a brighter future for the Web — in 2012 and beyond.

New Firefox for Android Experience Optimized for Tablets

Firefox for Android introduces a completely redesigned experience that is optimized for tablets and makes mobile browsing more intuitive. New tools in Firefox enable developers to create interactive mobile Web experiences.

Firefox for Android leverages large tablet screen sizes and optimizes popular features for tablets. The Awesome Screen integrates Firefox Sync and makes it easy to access your browsing history, open tabs, bookmarks and saved passwords across desktop and mobile devices so you can type less and browse more.

Tabs appear as thumbnails in the left panel so you can quickly switch between them while still viewing full websites on the right. You can swipe to the left to hide tabs for a full screen view.

Firefox optimizes your Web experience for both portrait and widescreen mode. In portrait mode, tabs are listed in a top left menu and easily hide when you don’t need them, allowing you to focus on the websites you visit.

With the new Action Bar menu (next to the Awesome Bar), you can access Firefox Preferences, Add-ons, downloads and more. The Action Bar adds the back, forward and bookmark buttons for easy access. One-touch bookmarks enable you to add an icon to your Android home screen for your favorite websites and Web apps, making Web apps as easy to use as native apps.

Developers will enjoy new HTML5 tools in Firefox that make it easier to create fun and interactive mobile Web experiences for phones and tablets. The HTML5 Input Tag for Camera Access enables developers to make websites and Web apps more powerful and interactive. Developers can build mobile websites and Web apps that allow you to use the camera on an Android phone or tablet to take pictures, scan bar codes and more without leaving Firefox. You can see a demo of the camera input element in action here.

Firefox for Android supports the HTML5 Form Validation API which automatically validates website form fields like numbers, emails and URLs without developers needing to write a custom code or use a third-party library.

For more information:

 

Major JavaScript Enhancements Make Firefox Speedy – up to 30% Faster

Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux has new JavaScript enhancements that make Web browsing significantly faster. The latest update to Firefox includes Type Inference which boosts JavaScript performance and allow rich websites and Web apps with lots of pictures, videos, games and 3D graphics to load and run much faster. Type Inference is a feature of the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine that integrates with the JaegerMonkey JIT compiler to provide analysis and help generate more efficient code. Firefox with Type Inference is up to 30% speedier on JavaScript benchmarks like Kraken and V8.

Firefox for Mac OS X Lion supports two-finger swipe gestures so you can easily navigate between websites. Firefox for Mac has an enhanced look and feel that matches the Mac OS X Lion icon and application toolbar styles and makes it easier to browse the Web using multiple monitors.

Web developers will notice Firefox helps websites load much faster, especially sites that download large sets of data or use AJAX. Firefox supports chunking XHR requests, allowing websites to display content as it’s downloaded instead of waiting for the entire download to complete. For more details about the new developer capabilities in Firefox, check out the Firefox for Web developers page.

For more information:

 

Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox

We’re pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google. This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional 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,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla.

“Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come,” said Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Search, Google.

The specific terms of this commercial agreement are subject to traditional confidentiality requirements, and we’re not at liberty to disclose them.

Mozilla Announces Firefox Flicks

We’re incredibly excited to announce Firefox Flicks, a campaign giving everyone an opportunity to produce short films that highlight what makes Mozilla Firefox different, that we’re a non-profit organization helping keep the power of the Web in people’s hands. We’re encouraging users, fans, filmmakers, animators everywhere to submit high-quality videos that will help more mainstream Internet users learn about the issues that affect their online lives and, more importantly, how Firefox addresses these issues.

Submissions for Firefox Flicks will be accepted February–April 2012 and are divided into four regions: US & Canada, Latin America, Asia and Europe (you can enter no matter where you live and you’ll be associated with the closest region). Anyone can enter —all you need is creativity and a love of Firefox and our philosophy of openness and improving everyone’s online experience.

The short films can be entered into any of four categories:

  • Best :30 Spot
  • Best Use of New Open Technology (e.g. Popcorn.js, HTML5, etc.)
  • Best Animation
  • Best Public Service Announcement

We’ll be sharing more details over the coming months, including Hollywood judges, events and prizes for our winning submissions. You can visit www.firefoxflicks.org for more details and be sure to follow our blog and Twitter for upcoming announcements. Check out the videos from the previous Firefox Flicks for some inspiration!

Mozilla leaders to DC: “There are alternatives to SOPA”

“We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the Internet. Let’s not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunities that we all had.”

That’s the conclusion of a letter that went to the Hill today signed by seventeen Internet company founders and leaders, including Sergey Brin, Reid Hoffman, Arianna Huffington, Brewster Kahle, Jerry Yang and Mozilla’s own Mitchell Baker. The letter asks that members of Congress recognize the unintended consequences of legislation aimed at combating online piracy.

The controversial bills in question are the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP in the House and Senate, respectively. Mozilla has been working closely with many leading organizations and companies to communicate our concerns with the bills to policy makers in Washington. (See our previous post for more information.)

Just this week, we sent our CEO Gary Kovacs to the White House to discuss alternative approaches to combating online piracy and addressing the specific problem of “rogue sites.” We also signed onto two other letters to the Hill  supporting consideration of the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, which was introduced last week as a viable alternative to tackling overseas copyright infringement.

Finally, a big “thank you” to all our users and community members! When we asked you to get involved in this issue a few weeks ago, we were blown away by the response. We overheard a Hill staffer at the initial House hearing on SOPA say “the Internet is on fire today.” That was hundreds of thousands of you contacting your representatives with your concerns over the impact of SOPA and PIPA to the Net.

Keep the pressure on. Let your members of Congress know you’re still concerned!A new organization called Engine Advocacy is running a campaign for you to “Add Your Voice and Protect Internet Innovation.”

Join Us in the Mozilla Firefox Challenge This Holiday Season

We’re excited to announce that, in parallel to our own annual end-of-year fundraising campaign, we’re sponsoring the Mozilla Firefox Challenge on CrowdRise to raise awareness and money for social and humanitarian causes.

Mozilla builds products, like Firefox, that put users in control of their online experience and shape the future of the Web — not for profit, but for good. As part of our commitment to making a difference, this holiday season we’re hoping to get everyone in on the spirit of doing good. So, just like we do with Firefox, let’s turn individual action into global impact together.

We brought together 12  cause-minded celebrities, and started each team with a $5,000 donation.

The initial celebrity and cause teams include:

Starting today, anyone can take part in the Mozilla Firefox Challenge by donating to a celebrity’s cause or fundraising for their own cause.

Mozilla will donate $25,000 to the cause that raises the most money between now and Jan 11, 2012. Each celebrity team is giving away great prizes too. You could win a poster from the film Milk, signed by Sean Penn, an iChat with Seth Rogen, a visit to the Arrested Development set with Jason Bateman, an outgoing voicemail greeting recorded by Paul Rudd and more.

Join us and let’s show the world how much good we can do!

Learn more and view the complete terms and conditions at http://crowdrise.com/firefoxchallenge

Paul Rudd


Actor Paul Rudd has starred in such movies as Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Dinner For Schmucks, Role Models, I Love You, Man, and recently, Our Idiot Brother. Rudd’s cause is the Rolling Dog Farm, which was his father’s pet project, so now he’s throwing them a bone, too.

Rolling Dog Farm rescues and shelters disabled animals. They come to the farm from human societies, animal control shelters and rescue groups across the country. They do not consider themselves handicapped – they want to get on with life and enjoy themselves and that’s what they get to do at the Rolling Dog Farm.

Click here to check out Paul’s fundraiser and donate $29 for a chance to win a voicemail greeting on your phone from Paul Rudd.

Will Ferrell


Actor Will Ferrell has delighted audiences in such movies such as Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Stranger Than Fiction, Semi-Pro, and The Other Guys. He launched the popular website, “Funny or Die.” Recently, Ferrell starred in the dramatic, Everything Must Go. Ferrell is supporting a cause that hits close to home – Cancer for College. This charity was founded by Ferrell’s good friend, a two-time cancer survivor.

Cancer for College was founded by Craig Pollard, a two-time cancer survivor, to help cancer survivors and amputees realize their dream of going to college. The bills from hospital visits, surgeries, and treatments are expensive, and even when cancer goes into remission, the battle and bills aren’t over. Cancer for College provides hope and inspiration by providing college scholarships.

Click here to check out Will’s fundraiser and donate $21 for a chance to win a Cowbell signed by him.

David Blaine


The New York Times calls David Blaine a modern day Houdini. USA Today calls him the “hottest name in magic right now.” He sets and breaks world records, performs for American presidents, international presidents, actors, even Muhammed Ali, and performed during the Superbowl Half Time Show. Blaine travels across the world to perform magic for charity – and the charity he’s supporting now is Charity: Water.

There are a billion people on the planet who don’t have clean water. That’s one in every eight people. Charity: Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Click here to check out David’s fundraiser and donate $22 for a chance to win a signed deck of cards and he’ll follow you on Twitter for a week.

Jason Bateman


Jason Bateman starred on the hit series, Arrested Development. Bateman is also known for his roles in the films we watch over and over – to name a few, Dodgeball, The Break-Up, Juno, Hancock, Up in the Air, Couples Retreat, The Switch, Paul, Horrible Bosses, and The Change-Up.Bateman is fighting for the charity, City Year, because he knows the statistics – every 26 seconds, a student gives up on school in America. City Year members serve as tutors and role models to help students stay on track to graduate.

City Year is an education focused, non-profit organization wholly focused on fighting the national school dropout crisis. City Year is committed to leverage the talent, energy and idealism of its members to serve as tutors and role models in schools to help students stay on track – and get back on track – to graduate.

Click here to check out Jason’s fundraiser and donate $59 for a chance to win a visit the Arrested Development set.

Christy Turlington Burns


Christy Turlington Burns is a model. Turlington Burns appears in fashion documentaries, music videos, and graces the covers of hundreds of magazines. She has worked as a guest correspondent on the NBC Today Show. In 2005, Turlington Burns began working with CARE, and, since became their Advocate for maternal health. This work inspired pursuit of a master’s degree in public health and her first documentary, No Woman, No Cry, which tells the stories of at-risk pregnant women worldwide. After the documentary in 2010, Turlington Burns founded her charity, Every Mother Counts, so she could keep the action going.

A woman dies every 90 seconds from complications of pregnancy. 90% of these deaths are preventable. Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal and child health. Every Mother Counts is working to build a clinic for mothers in need in Indonesia this holiday season. Why Indonesia? It’s one of the hardest hit countries in terms of maternal death.

Click here to check out Christy’s fundraiser and donate $21 for a chance to win a live chat over Skype with Christy.

Sophia Bush


Sophia Bush is an actress, director and spokesperson, currently starring in the hit television series, One Tree Hill. Bush appears in movies, including Van Wilder, The Hitcher, John Tucker Must Die and The Narrows.Bush is a serious activist, involved in both political and environmental issues. This time, Bush is fighting for the charity, F Cancer, because she knows that this is one of the only charities that focuses on the early detection of cancer, which may be the very best chance at a cure.

F Cancer is a movement that activates Generation Y to engage with their parents about early detection of cancer. Over 90% of cancers are curable if caught in stage one – why don’t more people know this? F Cancer is creating a generation of early detection ambassadors who, by learning about what to do to stay healthy, what to watch out for, and what questions to ask, are taking control of their own health and the health of their parents.

Click here to check out Sophia’s fundraiser and donate $29 for chance to win a signed F Cancer T-Shirt.

Seth Rogen


Seth Rogen is a comedic genius. He has starred in the 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express, Funny People and The Green Hornet. Many of these movies he wrote and produced as well. He won an Emmy for his writing on Da Ali G Show. We hear Rogen’s voice in Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. And, recently we see and love Rogen in his comedy-drama, 50/50. Rogen is supporting the Alzheimer’s Association – a fatal disease, affecting millions of people and it’s on the rise.

The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. The mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.

Click here to check out Seth’s fundraiser and donate or raise $75 for a chance to win an ichat with Seth.

Sean Penn


Sean Penn is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk and received a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the same roles. Penn’s beloved movies include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Carlito’s Way, Dead Man Walking, Being John Malkovich, I am Sam, All the King’s Men, and recently, The Tree of Life.In addition to his films, Penn is known for his activism – notably his humanitarian work following Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Penn, committed to his work in Haiti, founded his cause – the J/P Haitian Relief Organization.

The J/P Haitian Relief Organization formed shortly after the 2010 earthquake hit in Haiti. Founded by Sean Penn, they began as an emergency response organization. It became clear that Haiti didn’t need a quick fix – Haiti needs long-term support, including fixing homes, helping families, providing education, building job programs, and developing health programs. Working with the Haitian people and their government, JP HRO is committed to helping the hundreds of thousands still displaced by the earthquake.

Click here to check out Sean’s fundraiser and donate $32 for a chance to win a signed Milk movie poster.

Edward Norton


Edward Norton is an actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist, and recently, launched online fundraising, social networking website, CrowdRise. He earned Academy Award nominations for his roles in Primal Fear and American History X. Other Norton films include Kingdom of Heaven, The Illusionist, The Painted Veil, Rounders, Fight Club, 25th Hour, Red Dragon, The Incredible Hulk, and Leaves of Grass. Norton made his directorial debut in 2000 with film, Keeping the Faith and is slated to direct an adaptation of novel, Motherless Brooklyn.Norton ran the NYC Marathon in 2009 to raise money for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation with a team of Maasai Warriors. Edward is the UN ambassador for Biodiversity and president of the board for Maasai Wilderness Conservation.

The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT) works to protect the legendary ecosystems and astounding biodiversity of East Africa through conservation that directly benefits local Maasai communities – lions, elephants, great herds of antelopes and the Maasai people of Kenya. MWCT funds and operates programs that promote a cutting edge model of successful community-based conservation – programs include lease payments for conservancy zones, carbon credits, payments for watershed protection, sustainable eco-tourism, wildlife monitoring and security, conservation and tourism employment.

Click here to check out Edward’s fundraiser and donate $33 for a chance to win 2 tickets to the premiere of his new movie, Bourne Legacy.

Jonah Hill


Jonah Hill is currently starring in The Sitter. His other films included Superbad, Knocked Up, Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, Cyrus, and Moneyball. Jonah is also a writer and will be seen in the upcoming 21 Jump Street.Malaria is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes.Malaria kills nearly one million people per year – mostly children under the age of five. Malaria is also the number one killer of refugees in Africa.

Nothing But Nets is working closely with the United Nations Refugee Agency to send urgently-needed insecticide-treated bed nets to more than one million refugees in 15 countries.

Click here to check out Jonah’s fundraiser and donate $30 for a chance to win a signed BUZZKILL T-Shirt and he’ll send you a personal voicemail.

Zooey Deschanel


Zooey Deschanel is an actress and musician. Deschanel’s has appeared in Elf, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Failure To Launch, Bridge to Terabithia, The Happening, Yes Man and 500 Days of Summer.Deschanel currently stars in the Fox series, New Girl. She plays keyboards, percussion, banjo, ukulele and sings in some of her films. Deschanel’s cause is The Innocence Project. She cannot imagine how the devastation a person experience when wrongly accused of a crime.

The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the judicial system to prevent future injustice. To date, 280 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 17 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release.

Click here to check out Zooey’s fundraiser and donate $26 for a chance to win a signed Elf DVD

 

Barbra Streisand


Actress, singer, director, writer, composer, producer, designer, author, activist, Barbra Streisand is the only artist to receive an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France’s Legion d’Honneur as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The three films she directed won 14 Oscar nominations. Only Elvis has more Gold records than she. Her activism is just as impressive. Ms. Streisand is incredibly passionate about her cause Women’s Heart Disease and the Women’s Heart Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. For this reason, she created a program in her name to fight the epidemic.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women today. More women are dying of heart disease than men. Despite the fact that heart attacks present differently in men versus women, we still treat women based on research done on men. For these reasons, Barbra Streisand created the Barbra Streisand Women’s Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Click here to check out Barbra’s fundraiser and donate $31 for a chance to win a signed copy of Barbra’s book: “My Passion for Design.”