Trends of The Day

We’re done! Firefox 3 is being launched today after having been in development for roughly three years. Contributed to by thousands of people — developers, designers, localizers, testers, marketers, user supporters and documentation writers — Firefox 3 has been produced by one of the greatest open source communities in the world. We’re all extremely proud of it and incredibly excited to finally get it into the hands of millions of people.

For the past few weeks, the folks in the Mozilla community have been writing extensively about the new and improved features you’ll see in the browser. The new features run the gamut from huge and game-changing to ones so subtle you may not notice them until you realize that using Firefox is just somehow easier and better. The range of improved features is similar — whole back-end systems have been rebuilt from scratch, while other features have been tweaked slightly or redesigned in small ways. Overall, the result is the fastest, safest, slimmest, and easiest to use version of Firefox yet. To find out more, read the Field Guide to Firefox 3.

If you haven’t yet, you should also go to the Firefox Download Day site and help set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded on a single day. Once you’re done there, head over to Mozilla Party Central and find or set up an event to take part in. We hope you’ll all join in helping us celebrate the release of the best Firefox ever.

Walt Mossberg reviews Firefox 3On June 5th, Walt Mossberg — columnist for the Wall Street Journal — published an extensive review of Firefox 3, declaring it “the best Web browser our there right now.” “[I]t tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user.”
Obviously we’re pretty excited about getting such a great review from such a high-profile reviewer. The full article, and an accompanying video podcast, are available at the Wall Street Journal online.

Mitchell Baker in Korea - June 17-19On June 17th and 18th, Mitchell Baker will be speaking in Korea at the OECD Ministerial Meeting on The Future of the Internet - “Shaping Policies for Creativity, Confidence and Convergence in the Digital World.” Mitchell will also have a dinner with the Mozilla Korea community on June 18th to celebrate their efforts alongside the worldwide release of Firefox 3. Finally, Mitchell will keynote the Future Web Forum 2008: Global Web Technology Workshop on June 19th. Please visit Gen Kanai’s Mozilla in Asia blog for more details.

Support Firefox Day - June 20The SUMO (support.mozilla.com) community is organizing a special event as part of the release of Firefox 3: Support Firefox Day on June 20th. They’ll be hosting interactive demonstrations on how to make the most of Firefox 3’s new features so you can get rolling right away with your new browser. This is your chance to get tips and facts directly from the people who wrote the code. Plus, they’ll be showcasing the new user-based online support system and show you just how easy it is to jump in, be a part of the Mozilla Support team and put your own mark on the world’s best browser.
For more information, registration and some great video of some folks from the SUMO community, check out the Support Firefox Day page.

All about SUMO: An interview with David TenserSUMO (support.mozilla.com) is our new community-powered Firefox user support site. If you have any questions about or problems with Firefox, SUMO is the place to go to find documentation, answers to frequently asked questions, a bustling community forum, and incredibly helpful folks in the new Live Chat facility.
David Tenser has been part of the Mozilla community for many years, and is now heading up the SUMO project. He took some time out of his increasingly busy schedule to answer a few questions for Deb Richardson. The full interview is available at Deb’s weblog.

Johnathan Nightingale on Firefox 3’s security featuresCNET’s Robert Vamosi spoke last week with Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla’s “Human Shield” (aka security user interface designer). During the interview, Johnathan discusses the new security features that are part of Firefox 3. More information and a link to the audio-only podcast are available at CNET’s Security Bites weblog.

Firefox Mobile concept videoAza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla Labs, has put together a video demonstrating some user interface concepts for Firefox Mobile. “User experience is the most important aspects of having a compelling mobile product. Every bit of interaction and pixel of presentation counts when typing is laborious and screen sizes are minuscule. Many of the standard interaction models, like menus, always-present chrome, and having a cursor, don’t necessarily make sense on mobile. It’s a wickedly exciting opportunity but there are myriad challenges to getting it right.” There’s an extensive post that goes along with the video, both of which you can find at Aza’s weblog.

Brendan Eich interviewed by Eweek: The New Browser War“You could argue that Brendan Eich has had much, if not more, influence on modern-day browsers than anyone. At Netscape Communications, he created JavaScript for the Netscape Navigator browser. He was co-founder of Mozilla.org and helped spin out the Mozilla Foundation, where he served as lead technologist and a member of the board of directors. In 2005, Eich became chief technology officer of Mozilla Corp. Eich sat down with Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft at Mozilla’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., earlier this sprint to talk about a range of topics. This excerpt from their discussion focuses on JavaScript and where it is going.” Read the four-page interview at Eweek.