Mozilla outside the browser: Focus on open experimenters

After Chrome's market share exceeded Firefox's, Firefox was inevitably seen by some people, so Rao still renewed Google with Mozilla and became Firefox's default search engine.

Previously, we pointed out that Mozilla faces four problems: high development funds, reliance on Google capital, surpassing Chrome and its development in the mobile field being blocked. Google's renewal cannot solve the above issues, and Wired's view is representative. "Firefox is more like a backup ". The implication is that Firefox's market share is still attractive to Google.

David Ascher, responsible for Mozilla Social & Communications, published a blog post about what Mozilla has been doing before:

Over the years, Mozilla has been focusing on the following: sticking to the promise of the internet, we have designed a browser that is fast and easy to use, but does not follow the needs of users, making more and more people adapt to it.

So what is Mozilla's commitment to the Internet? "To ensure the openness of the Internet ".

Previously, they focused on promoting the development of an open network with the focus of browsers. However, Mozilla is currently working on three projects that have little to do with browsers:

• Boot2Gecko: an operating system running on a mobile device based on a browser;
• BrowserID: you can log on to the project of the corresponding website without a password;
• Apps: make the Internet the best way to create applications.

The three projects seem ambitious. On the first project's wiki page, we can determine that its goal is to replace the operating system on today's mobile phones and open a large number of interfaces, various applications developed through the network are used to implement functions on mobile phone hardware, such as dialing, finding contacts, and taking photos. It is not picky about hardware and is open enough.

BrowserID ensures security and makes it easier for users to log on to the website. In addition to the password, you may have to answer security questions or enter various complex verification codes when logging on to a website. After the BrowserID user registers, he can log on to a website by clicking login, which greatly simplifies the steps for logging on to the website.

Mozilla's Apps program is actually a set of network application development standards that are being promoted, allowing developers to develop applications that can run smoothly on any device and create an open app store ecosystem. The goal is to make the network the best way to create an application.

From the above projects, we can see that Mozilla has done much more than "providing a browser". In August this year, the Mozilla Foundation chairman Mitchell Baker wrote an article, she elaborated on her imagination about the "open application environment". All three projects that Mozilla is trying to promote today are related to this:

• Let our applications be cross-platform and cross-device. When we upgrade our mobile phones, we can use our applications no matter what devices we choose;
• We connect contacts from different vendors and social networks;
• Share our "leader boards" and other multimedia game elements on the Internet;
• Measure the test taker's knowledge about the application's intervention in our information. For example, the application can only share the information we allow;
• Like opening up other Internet content, we can develop applications in an open and flexible manner;
• Purchase applications from multiple vendors and increase value from the perspective of bundling, support, or service;
• If we choose, we can directly interact with application developers;
• Unified management of applications and network applications.

Mozilla seems to have a bright future in the browser's confrontation, but whatever the outcome, we will remember the lovely fox browser and the experimenter who insisted on open Internet.