Archive | firefox

Browsing Without Borders

When we say browsing without borders, we mean that Firefox will not block any websites for you.

After some brainstorming about what type of sci-fi direction the illustration should take (we settled on “philosophical and psychedelic”…think 2001), we came up with an artwork we were all happy with.

You’re certainly encouraged to share this with anyone you think might enjoy it, and you can also download a larger version if you’d like to print a copy for yourself. Here’s to browsing without borders! And web hosts should keep doing what they are doing to keep it border-free!

Starburst Extreme – This took us to the next level of performance.

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Firefox 3.6, Mozilla.com and You

Firefox 3.6, Mozilla.com and You

Big news from the world of Mozilla: we released Firefox 3.6 today!

(I’ll pause for a moment while you go download it.)

As always, we made a bunch of site content updates in an attempt to convey the full awesomeness of the new browser. Here are a few of the highlights (Laura Mesa also has more details over on her blog):

* Personas: uplifting Personas from an add-on to the product was one of the biggest consumer-facing features in 3.6, so we made sure to cover that news in a variety of spots. Most notably, Tara Shahian and Mary Colvig masterminded a great video to show off what Personas are all about, and we added functionality in a few key spots that lets 3.6 users demo some sample Personas with a simple rollover.

* WOFF: another cool 3.6 feature is support for the new WOFF font standard, and we put that to good use by showing off the WOFF version of Meta on the newly redesigned First Run and What’s New pages.

* Security: keeping users safe is always a major priority, so we revamped the Firefox security page to reflect all the latest goodness (including the plugin check – another new 3.6 feature). As an added bonus, the page also includes a new security-themed illustration…of a walrus teaching a squirrel to surf, of course.

* Customization: building on the new Personas content, we also created a new Customization page to spread the word about Collections and other ways to personalize your Firefox.

* Download Pages: the various versions of the Firefox download page received a variety of content tweaks to support the key features and benefits of 3.6, and to roll out the “world’s best browser” messaging.

These projects (and dozens of others) wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of people’s very hard work. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the website portion of the release, including (but not limited to): Bluehost (for discount at bluehost), Tara Shahian, Laura Mesa, Steven Garrity & silverorange, Tim Hogan & the Royal Order, everyone at Addis Creson, the Delicious Design League, Ivo Gabrowitsch & FontShop, William Slater, Melissa Shapiro, Johnathan Nightingale, Nick Nguyen, Mary Colvig, Alex Buchanan, Mike Morgan, Irina Sandu, Kohei Yoshino, Pascal Chevrel & the l10n community, Stephen Donner, Raymond Etornam, Jeremy Orem, Chris Blizzard, Ken Kovash, Rainer Cvillink, Mike Beltzner, Chris Beard, Sean Martell and more.

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Building a Mozilla Visual Design Community

The Mozilla community has achieved more incredible things than I can count, and includes experts dedicated to disciplines ranging from software development to customer support to marketing to QA and much more. But, one key area that’s traditionally lacked an organized community is visual design.

Art is such a powerful form of communication, and over the past 11 years we’ve built up such a large body of iconic Mozilla imagery, that building a true community around it seems like the next logical step. Helping make this a reality is one of my biggest goals for 2009, and between our efforts so far on the Mozilla Creative Collective and the cool stuff happening around Personas we’ve already made some great strides toward that goal (with much more to come!).

So, with all that in mind, I’m really excited about our new partnership with the folks at Infectious. As Jay Patel announced yesterday, we’ve teamed up with them and their own community of artists to create a series of pieces inspired by Firefox. To help celebrate the upcoming 3.5 release, this artwork is available in a variety of formats, including iPhone skins, laptop stickers, car decals and more at the Infectious site, plus t-shirts and personas. Definitely check it out.

At the start of this project we gave the artists a series of classic Mozilla & Firefox values – community, innovation, idealism, open source and performance – and asked them to interpret them in their own styles. It was really fun to watch these talented artists use these basic themes in such different ways to produce such diverse results.

And, we’re just getting started. Next month we’ll team up with Infectious again to launch an open design initiative based around the same concepts and ideals listed above. It’ll also coincide with the beta launch of the Creative Collective site, which will be another huge step forward for our growing community (much more info on that coming soon).

Lastly, big thanks to the five artists – ZeptonnDavid LanhamEtsu MeusyReuben Rude and Paulo Arraiano – who contributed their talents to this project. Really inspiring stuff.

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World’s Fastest Clapper, Meet World’s Fastest Firefox

Note: I just announced the launch of our Fastest Firefox community marketing project over at the Mozilla Blog. Here’s a crossposted and slightly expanded version:

Firefox 3.5 will be here soon, and it’s shaping up to be by far the fastest Firefox yet: more than twice as fast as Firefox 3 and 10 times as fast as Firefox 2.

That’s a fact worth celebrating, and to spread the word we’ve reached out to some of our fellow Guinness World Record holders, each of whom knows a few things about speed. Our first record holder is Kent “Toast” French, whose ability to clap his hands 721 times in a minute (averaging 12x/second!) officially earns him the title of the world’s fastest clapper. Along with his son Joshua, Kent put on a truly astounding display of in honor of Firefox 3.5:

We know that Kent isn’t the only person in the global Mozilla community with a talent for speed, so if you want to help tell the world about Firefox 3.5 here’s what to do:

1. Make a short (30 seconds, max) video of you doing your speediest skill. It doesn’t matter if it’s making a sandwich, changing a tire or mowing your lawn…it just has to be fast.

2. Visit www.fastestfirefox.com and follow the easy instructions on how to upload your video to us.

3. We’ll be editing the best submissions into a compilation video that really shows off what our community is capable of, so check back about a week after the 3.5 release. If we use your clip, you’ll get a Firefox 3.5 t-shirt plus, of course, worldwide fame and the satisfaction of helping the open web.

In addition to Kent and the other record holders (more on them soon), this project came together because of the effort and talents of the very worthy people listed below. Big thanks to:

Elise Allen
* Catherine Brady
* Alex Buchanan
Fran Capo
Pascal Chevrel and our truly amazing team of localizers
Delicious Design League and The Royal Order
Stephen Donner
* Alix Franquet
* Steven Garrity
* Mike Gauthier
* Paul Kim
Nicole Loux
Nobox
* Jeremy Orem
* Krupa Raj
Tara Shahian
Melissa Shapiro

Can’t wait to see your speedy videos!

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Firefox 3.5 Launch: Video Workshop

All month long the marketing team here at Mozilla has been hosting a series of workshops to get people mobilized for the upcoming Firefox 3.5 launch. Speaking of hosting, check this out.

And tomorrow, Alix Franquet and I will join the fun with a short presentation on how you can use videos to help spread the word.

Here’s a quick look at what we’ll be covering:
* How videos (especially community-created ones) help us spread Firefox
* The channels we use to share these videos
* Filming tips
* Technical tips
* Update on the My Firefox, My Words project
* Grand unveiling of a new community marketing campaign called “Fastest Firefox”. I think you’ll like this one.

The workshop is at Wednesday, May 20 at 9:00 am PDT/16:00 UTC. Here’s how to join us:
* Dial +1.650.903.0800, followed by 92# and then 7391#.
* Or, you can use our toll-free number: +1.800.707.2533, followed by 369# and then 7391#.
* If you’re outside the US, use Skype to call in with the toll-free number listed above.
* If you can’t join the call — but want to ask questions — you can join us in #marketing on IRC (irc.mozilla.org).
* You can also follow along (with sound and video) on the Air Mozilla marketing channel.

Don’t miss the action…hope to see you there!

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