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How do you define best? How do you make it a non-subjective? Do you determine they're best because they're the most preferred by users?

People forget where Firefox came from. It was not focus grouped (or even planned, really) by Mozilla. At the time, Mozilla was still almost exclusively funded by AOL, and their primary focus was the Mozilla Suite - a browser/email client/HTML editor/IRC client monolith that had lots of promising features, but was too complex and geek oriented to catch on with the general public.

Firefox exists because in 2002 Blake Ross (along with Dave Hyatt) got fed up with the code bloat and designed-by-committee UI of the old Suite, and decided to start a skunkworks-style OSS project to create the anti-Suite: a lean, fast, browser-and-nothing-else tool using the core Mozilla code but jettisoning most of the complexity that had arisen in the Suite over time.

Back then it was called "Phoenix" (as in, rising from the ashes of Mozilla). The search bar showed up very early in Phoenix's life: Phoenix 0.2, to be exact, released in October 2002. And when the search bar landed, it used Google as its engine.

Because Phoenix was Ross' and Hyatt's personal project, design decisions in those days basically came down to whatever they thought was best. They chose Google for the search engine because in 2002 Google was waaaaaay ahead of the competition in search. Heck, back in those days Yahoo licensed Google Search rather than rolling their own!

This was literally years before Google offered Mozilla a red cent for search traffic. In 2002 Google was still 2 years away from going public and had nothing like the cash mountain it has today. They certainly weren't running around throwing tens of millions at browser programmers' side projects.

In other words: Ross and Hyatt chose Google because at the time the decision was a no brainer. Every other search engine was so much worse than Google at returning relevant results that choosing any of them would have been putting the user's needs second, which was contrary to the whole point of Phoenix/Firefox.

Of course, today the quality of competing engines has mostly caught up, so if they were making the decision today maybe they'd have chosen differently, who knows. But it's a mistake to project the conditions of the world today back upon decisions made five years ago. The tech landscape was very different then.

UCLA Police Policy Section 301.24 (Pain Compliance Techniques) gives officers the right to use a Taser in drive-stun capacity to attain compliance from passively or aggressively resisting individuals "when the officer reasonably believes that the use of such a technique appears necessary to further a legitimate law enforcement purpose."

I recently redesigned a website and removed all the old Netscape 4 compatibility cruft. I still wanted the site to work in older browsers, though, so I reinstalled Netscape 4.8 to test it.

On reinstalling 4.8, I was reminded of the main problem AOL had with trying to promote Netscape the Browser: They couldn't resist turning it into an advertisement delivery platform. It installed "Get AOL!" icons on the desktop, came preloaded with a full set of links to partner sites on the bookmark toolbar, and even put a link to AOL on the IE links toolbar. Netscape 6 went even further, prompting the principle, "The personal toolbar is the personal toolbar, not the whorebar" in the Firefox Manifesto.

So on reading that the main selling point of Netscape 9 compared to Firefox is integration with the new Netscape website, it seems like more of the same stuff that drove people away.

Site integration in a browser needs to be unobtrusive, configurable, or both. Flock is somewhat better, because most features let you choose between at least two services. Their blog tools are even better, based on open APIs.

The Firefox/Opera/IE search field is a better example: There's only one site-integration item on the default toolbar, it's trivial to select another preset provider, and it's easy to add alternate services. Even Opera's context-menu encyclopedia/dictionary lookup, though it isn't configurable, is still unobtrusive.

Extensions are even better, because you don't (necessarily) have to convince the user to switch browsers. I can't believe I'm saying this, but if Netscape wants to provide browser tools that integrate with their website, I think it's time for Netscape to just create a pair of extensions, one for Firefox and one for IE, and retire the Netscape browser.

Actually, the way I read the "information broker" article doesn't seem like a problem. It's essentially an extension of the browser's current role in deciding to open a PDF in Acrobat Reader, Preview, or Evince, to open an email link in your default mail client, etc. Only now it'll be able to open based on data in a page. Got an ISBN number? Open it in your favorite online bookstore. Contact info? Add it to your address book.

It's a lot like Opera's ability to highlight text on a page and send it to a search engine, a dictionary, or a translation service.

As long as the sentiment behind "The personal toolbar is the personal toolbar, not the whorebar" remains intact, and as long as it's possible to choose competing different services/apps, the risk of corporate encroachment is minimal.

I believe if you read the comments on the post you'll find that I reconsidered many of my opinions based on the opposite views presented there. But thanks for the kind words :)

According to information linked from the the blurb which accompanied the YouTube video I watched, this is how the disagreement started. Mostafa objected to showing his ID to a 'Community Service Officer' because he thought he was being racially discriminated against. The CSO called the campus cops who arrived as he was leaving. Presumably he didn't leave straight away because he wanted to make his objections known, but after the police apprehended him (on his way out) and in-between Taserings, you can hear him yell "I said I would leave!".

So the crimes here seem to be:
1) Verbal altercation re. to not wanting to show a Student ID
2) Not leaving *immediately*
3) Non-violent resistance to being touched/grabbed/"assulted" by Police whilst in the process of complying with the request.

For this you get an electric shock, put into handcuffs, and 4 more electric shocks while restrained and helpless. Totally non-proportional response.

There is an addendum on this blog post entitled "Account from eyewitness UCLA student Mher" which I found very informative. But I also urge you to watch the full video if you haven't done so already.

Hi Berger,

I appreciate the nod. Richter made a similar comment on the post itself. I attempted to respond with the following about an hour ago, but it seems it didn't make it past the moderation filter, so here it is:

"Hi Richster,

I'm not sure either. My post on Firefox Religion from this time last year did mention Ben. But to be fair, Ben's article does begin with a discussion of perspectives :) Sour grapes don't help anything, and like others here, I enjoyed this article as a persuasive essay on why software engineering doesn't have to be as dispassionate as most people think.

I haven't lost interest in Firefox by a long shot, but coding-wise I prefer to work in leaps and bounds in small teams on fledgling products. Firefox no longer fits that profile--which is mostly a good thing! So I've been working with Joe Hewitt (another of the original Firefox guys) on a new project that will complement Firefox.

I think when we release, it will become clear that I never actually strayed too far from the fox. But I also know that the kinds of things we're working on could never be achieved--or achieved quickly enough, at least--if attempted in a project that has grown as large and mature as Firefox. Thus, our new project is in many ways a realization of where I would take Firefox today were it still as pliable (and thus immature) as 2 years ago.

Given that there are only two of us on the project right now, it consumes about all the coding time I can muster...so I allocate my Firefox time on SpreadFirefox and its campaigns, such as our newest, Firefox Flicks.

Thanks,

Blake"

//Another blog search engine will release a list of top 100 bloggers. Every blogger on the list will blog the news in the form of: "Wow, I'm honored to have made it onto the top 100 list" with a link back to the list maintainer's blog. The list maintainer will in return blog: "I'm honored to see that the list has been covered by such a high-profile blogger" with a link back to the winner's blog. The link incest will continue for weeks until it has propelled the list maintainer himself into the top 100, at which point the list will be declared a sham and the blogosphere will erupt in outrage.//

-- http://blakeross.com/2005/12/26/my-predictions-for -the-new-year/

I vote for Blake Ross's "Ten predictions for the new year" as the most hilarious list of predictions for 2006.

For example (I picked this one out for the Slashdot crowd): Due to a glitch in Windows Vista, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will mix up his notes at PDC '06 and declare: "Developers, developers, developers....We're going to f*%ing bury those guys!" Nineteen will leave on stretchers with furniture-related injuries.

Netscape 8 is based on Firefox, but lets users switch between both the Firefox and IE browser engines.

Keep this in mind. This is Netscape 8, possibly the ugliest browser out there. It uses Firefox's rendering engine (Gecko), but also has the ability to use IE's rendering engine if needed.

FTA:
Netscape 8 is based on Firefox, but lets users switch between both the Firefox and IE browser engines.

So now IE is still kind of the default browser -- when the site doesn't render properly, they will just switch the rendering engine to IE and go on like normal. It resolves nothing, as websites are not encouraged to fix their bugs.

Links:

Netscape Browser 8
Screenshot of Netscape Browser 8 -- The goggles! They do nothing!
Details on Netscape 8 UI Flaws

First look: Tour of the UI
Blake Ross on closing windows and accessability issues

Check out this post on Blake Ross's blog for his take on the levels of fun and professionalism in the Mozilla project. He's got some links to some entertaining bugs in Bugzilla too (like "Vending machine prices raised by $0.05").

The personal toolbar is the personal toolbar, not the whorebar.

It seems all the good Netscape people ended up with Mozilla (or at least not in Netscape anymore)

blogspot.com is a free hosting site for blogger.com weblogs. Saying "a review at blogspot.com" is like saying "a review at geocities.com" - it's meaningless, as anyone could have written it. If Slashdot is going to link to random bloggers, at least make it clear that the author is a random blogger as opposed to part of some semi-legitimate sounding site.

At any rate, the reviews by Danial Glazman (author of Nvu and Mozilla Composer) and Blake Ross (of the Firefox team) are far more enlightening.

"The Ocho" was also the ESPN channel that the dodgeball competition was aired on, in the movie Dodgeball. That was the first thing I thought of at least.

You thought correctly, then! Personally, though, I was disappointed that the Auckland suberb convention GrumpySimon mentioned ended: I was holding out for "Takapuna" where I was born, so I'd have some vague claim-to-fame...

Who's work is that?

Who's work is that?

A Firefox developer --> actually, Blake Ross (yes, we've heard of him before, and writer of the Firefox guide book)

why Firefox will never grow up --> from the article, "Firefox is growing and maturing--there's no question about it. But as long as we're around, it'll never fully grow up. So sit back, relax, and await the delicious delicacies that The Ocho will have to offer."

Website has gone down, so not sure how inflamatory the "controversial ... developer recruitment philosophy" line is.

Blake Ross, in his blog, had some insightful commentary that I didn't see mentioned here on Slashdot:

Google's interest in Firefox shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. At the end of the day, 90+% of Google's users are accessing its service through the browser created and controlled by its largest competitor. Would you feel comfortable if customers had to walk through your competitor's shop to get to your own? This is really what Firefox is all about from a strategic standpoint, and this is what "it's just a browser!" naysayers are missing: he who owns the window to the web owns the web. When there's one porthole on the ship, everyone has to look through it. Firefox seeks to add more portholes to make sure people really understand what's going on outside.

If they're planning an entire OS to make codifying and searching your data easier, I can't see that happening anytime in the short-term. After all, awhile back there was a shoot-out of desktop search tools, and the Google Desktop Search wasn't top-ranked (yet).

- shadowmatter

Blake Ross has the Wired cover on his blog.

I know that there is an auto-backup of the website for the original story, but it seems that Blake's personal site is down too.
I see that he is running WordPress - there is a note how to avoid the Slashdot effect for WordPress but maybe he did not activate the plug-ins.

A real geek who knows how to write, too. His blog looks fairly new but still informative.

Blake Ross says so! Buy it!

Blake Ross's minimal website reveals that November 9 is the day we "take back the web" i.e. the launch date for Firefox 1.0.

On Blake Ross website blakeross.com at http://www.blakeross.com/archives/000241.html "Not even at 1.0 yet, Firefox already enjoys inbound links to its product page from a staggering 74,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= link:GKeOz8LFGmYJ:www.mozilla.org/products/firefox / websites. This is 20,000 more http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= link:IPflJ8BuWUUJ:www.opera.com/ than link to Opera, 5,000 more http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= link:8zEU1IkyJ0UJ:www.netscape.com/ > than link to Netscape, 15,000 more http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= link:FprvSA3hHIAJ:www.microsoft.com/ie/ than link to Microsoft's IE page and 12,000 more http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q= link:5iRmnZTn43cJ:www.apple.com/ than link to Apple. This is phenomenal!"

They did lay off their workforce, and even if AOL tries to re-hire them I don't think anyone would take their job back.

However, it looks like AOL have contracted some key foundation staff (see mention of the guidebook - he also wrote the Mozilla 1.7 Guidebook too) to help with this release, plus there's some ex-Netscape staff still working on other projects within AOL that could help out.

They did lay off their workforce, and even if AOL tries to re-hire them I don't think anyone would take their job back.

However, it looks like AOL have contracted some key foundation staff (see mention of the guidebook - he also wrote the Mozilla 1.7 Guidebook too) to help with this release, plus there's some ex-Netscape staff still working on other projects within AOL that could help out.

I'm not sure whether it'll help or hinder the Firefox launch, I don't really think it'll have much effect either way. What might do though is agreeing to advertise it so if you're webmaster of a high traffic site or have a say in what goes into a dead-tree magazine click the link...

I don't know if he's a "programming god," but I seriously doubt he's "some highschool kid with all summer to screw around."

Funny thing is, he just turned 19. =)

I bet a significant reason for the change is the grassroots marketing campaign started by some of the mozilla people a few weeks back. Here's your chance to help out. And don't forget to put the firefox promotional buttons on your site.

From Blake Ross's blog (a mozilla developer who is only 19) says "We are less concerned with actual download numbers than with trends--how many more or fewer people are using Firefox this week than last--and we're very happy with the trends we see now. Our goal, then, is to concern ourselves more with maintaining these trends than with the big picture: keep Firefox growing weekly and the rest will follow." Source.

From Blake Ross's blog (a mozilla developer who is only 19) says "We are less concerned with actual download numbers than with trends--how many more or fewer people are using Firefox this week than last--and we're very happy with the trends we see now. Our goal, then, is to concern ourselves more with maintaining these trends than with the big picture: keep Firefox growing weekly and the rest will follow." Source.

From Blake Ross's blog (a mozilla developer who is only 19) says "We are less concerned with actual download numbers than with trends--how many more or fewer people are using Firefox this week than last--and we're very happy with the trends we see now. Our goal, then, is to concern ourselves more with maintaining these trends than with the big picture: keep Firefox growing weekly and the rest will follow." Source.

Help more people switch to mozilla/firefox. Mozilla hacker Blake Ross has started a weekly brainstorming effort for firefox marketing ideas on his weblog. Go thither and chime in. I just did.

This is a problem across most open source projects. Indeed, most programmers know very little about HCI concerns, and it shows. Take, for example, Mozilla's UI blunders -- its numerous "managers" and the famed cipher editor (see also: commentary by Ben Goodger and comments by Blake Ross).

What's needed is not just the involvement of HCI people, but a commitment to accept the methods they bring to the table, and the results they produce. For example, if it's proven that a system like Mozilla's "Edit Ciphers" confuses more than helps, the project's drivers must be willing to listen, and get its code out of the main builds. If not, the HCI people can put as much time as they want into a product, only to burn out.

Does that mean that Blake Ross is back?

Buy me the extra RAM and I'll do it.

With apologies to Blake "buy me a Mac and I'll fix the bug" Ross (Mozilla bugs 75158, 76728, 77758, 81028, 88086, etc).

The google alogorithm can be manipulated to some extent but it has stood up pretty well so far.

Blogs must be denting the system, at least for specific queries against Google. Check out the "Kate Bosworth naked" war, for instance.