Mozilla Updates Firefox 2 Plans

The Mozilla Foundation has unveiled at least part of what lies ahead for its popular browser, Firefox, as it moves into its second iteration.

Lead engineer for the project Ben Goodger noted that the new roadmap for Firefox 2 will include an alpha release developer preview in March and a beta release preview in April.

Mozilla Updates Firefox 2 Plans

National ISP Offers Firefox to Customers

The Mozilla Foundation's popular open-source Web browser Firefox took another step forward in mainstream acceptance with the announcement that Speakeasy, a Seattle-based national broadband ISP, is offering a customized version of Firefox 1.0 to its customers.

The Speakeasy Edition of Firefox is currently available as a download from Speakeasy. It will also be distributed as part of Speakeasy's self-install broadband service kits to its residential customers starting this month.

National ISP Offers Firefox to Customers

Does Google Need a Browser?

When Mozilla engineer Ben Goodger announced he had started employment with Google two weeks ago, the tech world gasped at the thought that the world's most popular search engine Latest News about search engine might have painted a red target on Explorer.

But with open source Latest News about open source development as the guiding principle behind Firefox, the notion of knocking off Microsoft's dominant browser is probably not a realistic goal.

Does Google Need a Browser?

Google snaps up top Firefox programmer

Google has hired the lead programmer of the Firefox Web browser, the newest step in the search engine powerhouse's encroachment on Microsoft's turf.

Ben Goodger announced Monday on his blog that he took a job with Google on Jan. 10. The move is the latest of several that are fueling speculation that Google plans its own Web browser.

Google snaps up top Firefox programmer

Firefox Passes 20 Million Downloads

Two and half months after Firefox's 1.0 launch, the Mozilla Foundation has more to celebrate than non-stop media coverage: Firefox has surpassed 20 million downloads. The milestone comes just days after new tallies of Web browser usage shows strong gains by the open source newcomer, which is slowly chipping away at Internet Explorer's dominance.

Last November, Microsoft IE product manager Gary Schare told BetaNews, "We think that getting the first set of early adopters is a lot easier than getting the next set, and then crossing over into the mainstream is pretty difficult." But Firefox is refusing to relent, garnering up to 270,000 downloads per day.

Firefox Passes 20 Million Downloads

Mozilla Is Gaining on Godzilla

How's this for a mismatch? On one side, you have Microsoft, the world's largest software company, with $37 billion in revenues and 57,000 employees. On the other is the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit with a $2 million budget and just 16 employees wedged into a single room in a Mountain View (Calif.) office park.

It's Godzilla vs. Mozilla, and Mozilla is a midget. Yet the pipsqueak is pulling off a feat that would have seemed preposterous a year ago. It's taking chunks of share from Microsoft in the Internet browsing market. According to a survey released Jan. 12 by Web site analytics firm WebSideStory, Mozilla's free Firefox browser has grabbed a 4.6% share over the past six months and seems well on the way to its stated goal of 10%.

Mozilla Is Gaining on Godzilla

Firefox Makes Gains as RSS Reader

The open source Firefox web browser has made headlines as it chips away at the dominant market position of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But Firefox is also grabbing market share as an RSS reader, according to new data from RSS service provider Feedburner, which says the browser is now the third-most popular RSS client in its usage stats.

Feedburner's data, based on an analysis of its 800 most popular feeds, show that web-based feedreader Bloglines is the clear market leader with 32.8 percent of the volume, followed by the NetNewsWire client for Mac OS X with 16.9 percent. Firefox is next with 7.8 percent, placing it ahead of established RSS clients including Pluck (7.2%), NewsGator (4.5%), FeedDemon (3.8%) and the web-based My Yahoo (2.6%).

Firefox Makes Gains as RSS Reader

Group aims to capitalize on Firefox success

Following up on the success of the Firefox open source Web browser, released by the Mozilla Foundation last fall, open source software developers are readying some new products aimed at a consumer market still dominated by proprietary software.

Mozilla, which recently introduced an e-mail program called Thunderbird, is working to combine it with the foundation's Sunbird calendar application in a project, code-named Lightning, that could compete with Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Outlook program. Lightning's developers are planning their first general-user release for mid-2005.

Group aims to capitalize on Firefox success