Tag: Mozilla Foundation

Mozilla Blocking Tracking Cookies

According to Bucking the Norm, Mozilla to Block Tracking Cookies in Firefox, 55.4 per cent of the total time required to load an average website was spent loading third-party trackers. I find that indicative of a problem with US businesses. I think marketers have adopted a “by any means necessary” approach to destroying customers privacy.

In the physical world, users wouldn’t expect hundreds of vendors to follow them from store to store, spying on the products they look at or purchase,” Mozilla’s Nick Nguyen pointed out, in a posting on Thursday. “Users have the same expectations of privacy on the web, and yet in reality, they are tracked wherever they go.
…
Some sites will continue to want user data in exchange for content, but now they will have to ask for it, a positive change for people who up until now had no idea of the value exchange they were asked to make,” Mozilla said.

Netscape falls from the sky

Netscape falls from the sky

Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.

Alas, the end of an era and the end of my denying how old I am.

Mozilla Labs Weaves the web

Introducing Weave by Chris Beard

As the Web continues to evolve and more of our lives move online, we believe that Web browsers like Firefox can and should do more to broker rich experiences while increasing user control over their data and personal information.

Mozilla Weave

Looks like the Mozilla foundation is getting into the services business. Mozilla's Weave project appears to duplicate the functionality of the Google's Browser Sync. In the current Weave 0.1 users will be able to synchronize their bookmarks accross computers using Firefox 3.0 ( current in beta ).  The goal of the project is more than just browser synchronization:

We’ve set out some basic organizing principles to help frame the approach that we’re going to explore. We will:

  • provide a basic set of optional Mozilla-hosted online servicesensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services with freely available open standards-based tools
  • provide users with the ability to fully control and customize their online experience, including whether and how their data should be shared with their family, their friends, and third-parties
  • respect individual privacy (e.g. client-side encryption by default with the ability to delegate access rights)
  • leverage existing open standards and propose new ones as needed
  • build a extensible architecture like Firefox

 

I think this is an interesting move from Mozilla and I am even more interested in how Google and Yahoo will respond. Personally I would be happy to move back to Firefox ( it was too bloated with extensions ) from Safari my browser provided the following:

  • OpenID integration: I like the Verisign SeatBelt plugin but I want this done natively in the browser.
  • A way to save my entire browsing session and launch it from another computer at any time.  Really that would be so fracking cool!