Celebrating the Web We Want

Benjamin Sternthal

197 responses

promo-1

The latest version of Firefox is a huge milestone for Mozilla and represents the combined efforts of hundreds of people from around the world. To celebrate this launch we revisited Glow, a real-time visualization of Firefox downloads originally used during the launch of Firefox 4 in 2011.

This time we wanted to do more than just show downloads. We wanted to give people a chance to express what they want the Web to be. To this end, users visiting https://webwewant.mozilla.org/ have the option to share with Mozilla and the world their hopes for the Web. These “shares” are displayed on the map and we display information about which issues are most important in each continent and country.

promo-2promo-3

The dots on the map represents people: either someone downloading Firefox or sharing the Web they want. For me, watching the map is both humbling and inspiring. When people use Firefox— a free and open source browser made by an amazing community— and choose to share with the world what matters to them, it shows a global commitment to the future of the Web.

Technical Details

How do we process millions of interactions and display them?

The site processes request logs for Firefox downloads, auto-updates, and users who share via the website. We perform geolocation lookups on the data and aggregate the information for consumption and display by the Web application.

We have a particular love of the Simpsons on our team and elements of our project are named appropriately:

  • Mr. Burns – The overall codebase.
  • Smithers – The “servant” scripts who provide data to Mr. Burns.

Mr. Burns relies on three main scripts to display data:

  • Bart – Parses log files looking for Firefox downloads or auto-updates.
  • Lisa – Geolocates parsed data and aggregates into buckets.
  • Milhouse – Packages data into JSON for consumption by the front-end.

The flow of data can be seen in this diagram:

glow-data

Data is stored in Redis and the JSON files are delivered to the front end application via CDN. The front end app renders the individual “glows” and the stats using D3.js.

To learn more visit our Wiki and explore the code on Github.

Special Thanks

This was a large project with many participants, all of whom deserve thanks. I would like to thank a few people who worked especially hard:

Eric Petitt – Project Sponsor

Paul McLanahan – Senior Developer

Steven Garrity – Senior Developer

Ali Almossawi – Metrics Engineer

John Slater – Creative Director

Sean Martell – Art Director

Matej Novak – Copy Director

The Localization Team & Contributors

And you! Without you the world would have no Glow.

197 responses

  1. Mook wrote on :

    To me, it wasn’t obvious that the initial selection screen limited me to one option; why can’t I want multiple things? I wonder if that plus the placement affected the relative rankings, given that privacy is the first item in English reading order. (Of course, it’s also quite possible that people want it!)

  2. Steven G. wrote on :

    Great work everyone. Also got some nice JS work from https://github.com/gauthierm/ (thanks!).

  3. Dark the only one wrote on :

    I have the same regret than Mook, I want to push on a lot, not just privacy.
    But ok it might be not as easy to see what people want first. Does privacy is a priority to me?
    Not really, a lot of tool can ensure or makes hard to trace people but, I clic on it just because it was the first, on the list. I say the first on the list because I am “occidental”, not sure that “oriental” will push this button first. The sense of reading is really important to be take into account.
    Thus ok, build the statistic and enlight from where localisation items appear in first.

    thank you for all this work.

  4. Mary Roberts wrote on :

    Not that much freedom in Firefox when its own CEO did no have freedom of opinion and beliefs.

  5. Ivan Gabriele wrote on :

    Wonderful initiative ! That’s all we love about Mozilla 🙂

  6. Catalin wrote on :

    Great thing to see global opinions regarding internet future. Amazing web browser, amazing initiative …I love Firefox!

  7. Chris wrote on :

    Mozilla is one of the truest companies that have ever existed. They are the only ones that I know that are willing to be this helpful for the fight for internet freedom and the only ones that are willing to disclose information if the people want it. Despite what happened with the CEO, that has nothing to do with the fight for internet freedom

  8. leonel wrote on :

    português se faz favor.
    nem toda a gente sabe ler ou falar ingles.
    obrigado

  9. Victorio wrote on :

    Colgar todos los post del sitio en el idioma de instalacion del usuario por ejenplo en mi caso español, no todas las personas tienen que estar obligadas a hablar ingles, eso es un falta de libertad idiomatica.
    Muchas gracias.

  10. Ken wrote on :

    Firefox clearly leads the way, enabling & empowering people worldwide to access the web, participate in a global community, and to change the ‘perception’ that only high value = high quality. Make it more accessible, affordable, easily usable…. it will change things forever.

    But if I hear the ‘CEO’ issue mentioned once more I think I’ll explode! His opinions were unacceptable to most human beings…. get over it.

    My new ZTE Open C arrived today, complete with Firefox OS.

    Well done Mozilla!

  11. Anderson wrote on :

    português se faz favor.
    nem toda a gente sabe ler ou falar ingles.
    obrigado

  12. Akhilesh wrote on :

    I simply loved reading this page for the intent, gratitude, openness and love it displays.

  13. cynar wrote on :

    Sehr gut gemachte Seite! Dank an das Team für die ständige offene Weiterentwicklung !
    Dieser fox ist besonders gut in der Aufmachung und in dem neuen Design und der Handhabung!
    Ich liebe den fox!

  14. Sadiq Reber wrote on :

    Such an astonishing work, FORWARD TO THE SUCCESS!!!!!!!

    Thanks to everyone for creating this helpful web browser 🙂

  15. Bill C wrote on :

    Thank you for standing up for and with the world. We appreciate it. Freedom and continued learning is why we are here not profits.

  16. Rick O wrote on :

    Why does one of the little girls say “I want rights”?

    In the US, our Constitution is founded on the concept of inalienable rights. This means that as humans we innately possess rights. They are not granted by government (despite many public campaigns demanding government grant some “new” right). At best, government protects our ability to exercise those inalienable rights and is (or should be) restricted from adversely affecting those rights.

    The little girl’s statement would be far more powerful if she said “I _have_ rights” with the implied expectation she wants them protected and respected.

  17. Nko wrote on :

    Eskerrikasko! Euskal Herritik…

  18. Marc wrote on :

    Creo que si Mozilla como otras organizaciones que pelean por una web abierta y justa para las mayorías no lo logran, entonces habrá llegado la hora de plantearse una Internet paralela que si cumpla esos objetivos.

  19. stephane wrote on :

    firefox is now look good thanks.

  20. Mahmoud Ajbar wrote on :

    Thank you for the hrad work, we where looking for this Big Step so looong, nothing but progress from now on 😀

  21. Belly wrote on :

    Thank you Mozilla for building Firefox.

  22. Noe Ver wrote on :

    ….bien, debe haber algo mas que hacer…

  23. iván romero abril wrote on :

    this the most complete page the people need around the world

  24. Fabio wrote on :

    Esto no sirve para nada, lo descargue y a hecho que Firefox este mas lento y no puedo ingresar a ninguna pagina, salvo esta.
    Quiero que solucionen esto o lo voy a desinstalar de mi PC.

  25. Vishnu wrote on :

    Very exciting!!!! Keep up the good job…

  26. Emmanuel wrote on :

    I always enjoyed work with Mozilla.

  27. Fábio wrote on :

    Um dos melhores navegadores que ja utilizei gostaria de ter uma oportunidade de trabalhar e ou contribuir com voces, obrigado pelo espaço cedido e até mais.

  28. Tanzimul Haq wrote on :

    Mozilla is always give me awesome experience , and i believe its greater than our thinking in future.

    I’m using MOZILLA FIREFOX for help shape the future of the Web.

  29. Lulu wrote on :

    I am impressed by your fight for freedom of Google, I follow you because I am okay with you!

  30. Kim Rannikko wrote on :

    It would seem that people feel that privacy is the most important thing on the web, the funny thing is that so many people still share every little thing they do and think in social media. So what do people regard as privacy when we are sharing everything with everyone?

  31. Tejas Srivastava wrote on :

    tHanx Mozilla for the effort u all r making to make internet better.

  32. Linwork wrote on :

    Nice video and site and this whole idea. 🙂 Firefox is Good for me.

  33. souleymane danfa wrote on :

    j’aime mozilla je les toujour utilise pour tout mes navigation depuie que gai un pc

  34. RvilcapomaG wrote on :

    Felicito a los 6000 colaboradores y mas… que conforman dicha comunidad internacional, porque demuestran que independientemente a su origen, cultura, estatus socio-economico, credo y varios etc… lograron, logran y lograran ser guias en internet para TODOS con sus productos y servicios de Software Libre y Código Abierto como debe ser en la mayoria de los casos.

    Muchas pero muchas gracias por este Firefox 29.0

  35. Mano wrote on :

    Az egyetlen böngésző, ami még nem szivatott meg mióta internetezek, grat nektek érte, csak így tovább.

  36. vinod gudadinni wrote on :

    you guys have done a great job ……..
    wherever i go i use to install the firefox before browsing anything

  37. Farhat wrote on :

    Colgar todos los post del sitio en el idioma de instalacion del usuario por ejenplo en mi caso español, no todas las personas tienen que estar obligadas a hablar ingles, eso es un falta de libertad idiomatica.
    Muchas gracias.

  38. Abhishek Saha wrote on :

    I have always loved Firefox. Its a great boon for developers. I congratulate and thank the people behind firefox. Great work guys ! The web was free. The web should be free. \m/

  39. Earth Dancer wrote on :

    I like to see the addition of people using Fox worldwide. It means that change will happen and I am looking forward to it. Globalisation.

  40. pakar seo wrote on :

    mozilla feature is very cool, I love to use Mozilla Firefox

  41. Adam (french speaking) wrote on :

    ( Sorry for my misspellings !
    the following comment is most correct 🙂

    Je fais une totale confiance à Mozilla Firefox et à son équipe.
    Je l’ai toujours utilisé depuis plus de 15 ans sans interruption.
    Je l’ai donc recommande à des dizaines d’utilisateurs.
    J’en suis toujours satisfait.
    Merci encore.

  42. mboochin wrote on :

    LOL! Gotta love the Simpsons references in the technical details. Beyond that good job it looks nice!

  43. Bren wrote on :

    thanks for making me feel safe when I am browsing the internet. It is a scary world out there.

  44. Hamed’Day Blessing D. wrote on :

    Nouveau design – Plus interactive
    C’est vraiment formidableeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….

  45. md. sahnwaz alam wrote on :

    good always.

  46. md. sahnwaz alam wrote on :

    bahut khoob,

  47. Fliqside wrote on :

    Mozilla could easily choose to make tons of profit now that it is so popular, just like the other companies. But it it true to its mission of providing a an honest browser that works “for the people”. On top of that, all the other prosocial activities such as lobbying against SOPA and teaching digital literacy is what makes Mozilla a true example of what a company should be like in the 21st century and beyond. And, perhaps, most importantly, Mozilla and Wikipedia have shown that it is possible for a genuinely caring and people- not profit-oriented company to compete and beat powerful multi-billion dollar corporations like Microsoft and Google.

  48. Nilton wrote on :

    O Firefox ficou Maravilhoso !!!! Muito Obrigado !!!!

  49. Cix wrote on :

    … and I love you for all this

  50. ter wrote on :

    But Fliqside, they DO ton of profits.

    Otherwise, agreeing with Mook.

More comments:1 2 3 4