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Firefox New York Times Ad Hits the Presses
Dave writes "The long awaited New York Times ad for Firefox has finally hit the presses. Because of the vast number of donations the ad covered two pages of the newspaper. It's being timed to coincide with 11 million downloads."
Does anyone have a higher resolution image so I can actually read the names.
-- john
It'll be interesting to see exactly how much this (wonderfully designed) ad will affect the number of downloads over the next few days. Here's to hoping this makes a difference with all the Joe User's out there.
...we could start a fund raising project to run a full-page ad for Lynx?
This way to the egress...
... the web browser I'm fed up with is FireFox?
Here i was thinking the new york times would go out of print before they got this thing through!
Perfect, this will come just in time for the pre christmas, holiday rush where nobody reads newspapers.
One has to wonder, will 'Monkey' Ballmer and his gang of miscreants reply to this? Will we see a big 'IE. Get with the program.' on the next days? They cannot let this stand...
j.
12th line down 182 name over, seee see see, I made the paper! Not.
wow
I was a little apprehensive as to how the ad would turn out, but I think the result is not only an eye-catcher, but very classy.
Kudos to the Mozilla team!
I can't get to the spreadfirefox.com site (damn /.) but from the summary, it sounds like the ad went out today. I thought we (donaters) were supposed to get a little pre-warning before it went out so we could actually head out and buy the paper.
Argh.
Love firefox, though netscape seems faster, IE is crap everyone should acknowledge that.
It seems we have a merry cristmas this year...
Thanks for making FX I say as developer of SiteBarSidebar.
Perhaps in PDF?
:)
:)
I'd love to print this out and hang it on a wall around here
Or, better yet, maybe the Firefox Folks coule sell posters
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
Spinning newspaper injures reporter.
Unknown host pong.
The spread of Firefox has really impressed me. I think it will only continue to grow, but I'm not sure if the ad will have too much effect. The biggest growth will come from those 11 million people telling their friends and family to give it a try.
I have been recently trying to promote my own new site breasy.com(coincidentally something of a Firefox competitor) and I am learning how difficult it is to get the word out about a new piece of software, even if it is extremely useful and free! So, I am impressed even more by the quick spread of firefox. I have also noticed in my site's logs that IE is only used about 80% of the time. I think its share is definitely decreasing.
Have you ever asked yourself, Is It Normal?.
I can't say I fully understand the business model behind the Mozilla project. There are no ads on their homepage or within their product that generate income, so just how exact are they funding their project (and advertisement). I always figured it was a sort of philanthropic effort.
Does the Firefox team have any plans to assault the foreign press with their fabulous browser?
I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born - Ronald Reagan
the coolest thing about firefox is getting it past your company firewall and system administrator. i wish i could do that with counter-strike...but i would settle for a stripper. people at work come up behind me and they're like "whoa..are you running microsoft plus? your IE icons look sooOooO cool." that's SO Netscape 4.2, though...come on.
Martini Glasses
Would it have been feasable to include a CD with the paper so NYT readers could fire up the fox?
I looked at the PNG linked to in the posting, and i have to say, I wasn't very impressed. It sounds like something written by a bunch of open source programmers.
They refer to the people who've downloaded it as "users". While, yes, they are users, I think the majority of the web browsing population doesn't use the term "user" when referring to themselves. Something like "... 10 million people from around the world..." would've sounded less geek-like.
Heck, a lot of people don't even separate the "web browser" as something that is distinct. They think of the web as the Internet, their monitor as their computer, their case as their hard drive, etc.
The ad did focus on the spyware, crashes, etc. which is good -- but, IMHO, they just didn't do it in the "average computer users" tongue.
"It's All About The Pentiums"
'Weird Al' Yankovic
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby), yeah, now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him "Money" for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You've gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the Internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem, tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got 'em printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operation system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor forty inches wide wide
I believe that your says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, "alt.total-loser"
Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What? What? What? What? What?
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
What??
anyone see I.P. Freely?
Substitute Firefox in the sentance above (from the NYT ad) for 'OS X'...
This ad is far more visually impressive than I anticipated. I am in the UK and will look for a hard copy when they arrive in newsagents.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
USA Today is the newspaper usually provided in most US hotels. An ad there will likely have even more exposure than the NYT...
Microsoft has purchased the New York Times Company (NYT) and as a celebration of their new found synergies has decided to cancel today's printing. Bill Gates, reached via telephone, remarked "Oh, did we buy them... I didn't notice. I hope Steve [Balmer] remembered to use by Diner's Club Card for that acquisition."
But I wonder how much this will affect the number of worms/trojans that start affecting Firefox vulnerabilities. I think Firefox is superior to IE, but it has enjoyed staying out of the spotlight enough to avoid the attention of malware writers.
I love the ad! I especially like the hidden image on the first page (stare at the page long enough with uncrossed eyes and "IE Sucks" will appear in 3D). Was this a clever easter egg or just an attempt at semi-subtle subliminal advertising?
How about we not post any links to mozilla.org over the next few days so anyone who wants to download it will get faster speeds and not have to deal with slashdot bandwith usage?
-- Any comments seen here are not mine, but a mixture of alchohol and lack of sleep.
Here is a link to the folks behind the ad. Including a PDF version, a poster you can buy...and a place to put in the correction if they mis-typed your name.
Anyone know where in the paper it is? Like right behind the front page, or section E page 12
Was that deliberate? I ask because too many people equate Internet Explorer with "The Internet" and don't consider that it is actually their web browser.
(On a side note: Is anyone else finding that Firefox crashes if you try and open a group of tabs for the first time it starts up? I'm submitting 2 to 4 trackbacks a day and it's getting annoying now)
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I know this shouldn't detract from the 11+ million downloads and all that... but I noticed a couple of doubles in the names.
And no, I didn't read the entire list. I just happened to notice "Nathan Campbell Nathan Campbell" two times in a row by accident.
Just sayin'.
I would like to see a high res scan of this printed on newsprint. I find it hard to imagine that they could print this on newsprint without the ink bleeding to make the names illegiable.
SIGFAULT
That an advertisement, usually despised here, on the NY Times, a paper which cannot be linked here without some childish comment regarding registration is now A Good Thing(TM) on /.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
in the 2nd third of the text you can read "Gaylor D. F. Aggot"
At 1 point or another I have worked on the computer of nearly every person I know, removing viri, malware, or upgrading optimizing their pc. For more than a year I have added Firefox (with permission) and I hear the same complaints, inspite of the benefits of Firefox, the moduals are too complicated for the average user, they get frustrated with it's out of the box limitations and give up. I keep trying to convert people but unless they have some computer savy most of the "Joes" give it up and return to IE. On a side note, my college finally added Firefox to the image so we now have a choice.
piss off
I think it would have been better to run multiple ads over a series of weeks instead of one monster ad.
If the original goal was 2,500 names, but 10,000 were received, I think there would have been a lot more impact running 4 x 2,500 instead of 1 x 10,000. Maybe every Monday for 4 weeks in a row or something (and not over the holidays).
Excuse my ignorance, anyone knows when this ad will hit the newsagents in Toronto? I would like to get a copy.
[alk]
Is the ad appearing in the online version of the NYT? I personally know a lot more people who read it online than in print.
"The general contract of the method run is that it may take any action whatsoever." -- Java 2 API
What do you guys think they used as the font/size for all those names? That's like EULA sized print!
...such as Spud McKenzie. Apprently the old dog likes Bug and fast and secure web-browsing!
--Which would not exist at all without community enthusiasm and support. These are POSITIVE things. Why do some people have a problem with this?
Your stick is in the mud.
-FL
It's not clear what firefox is or what would replace.
There is "web browser" on the first page but not the magic word "internet".
Any wayt it's a good efford.
I want to see the parody of this ad. Someone out there has to do a good Microsoft parody of this.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
I'm right at the bottom of the paw. It's cool that they had enough money for two pages, but it might have been better to have spent the extra money on a different publication.
-- john
Mozilla.org has been New-York-Times-dotted today, when hundreds of thousands of readers tried to download the open source browser Firefox...
v4sw6PU$hw6ln6pr4F$ck 4/6$ma3+6u7LNS$w2m4l7U$i2e4+7en6a2X h
What effect will Firefox's growing poularity have on its future vis-a-vis security? Does it become a more inviting target for malicious coders? Do any of you out there know if Firefox is written well enough to withstand such attention? I've been using Firefox since V.08. and I have watched with growing concern as its popularity has increased. Wether justified or not, I felt a little safer with this browser when less people were using it.
Regards,
JP
The facts expressed here belong to all, the opinions to me. The distinction between fact and opinion is yours to decide.
I am thrilled that an open-source product has the popularity and support to achieve such an incredible goal. I don't remember any OSS product ever having so much exposure, Linux itself not withstanding.
I personally have converted at least five people at work and several other friends to Firefox, all of whom have nothing but praise for it. Any web sites that I maintain now say "Designed for use with Firefox" with a link.
Regarding the comments about "Who reads newspapers at this time of year" and so forth, you need to remember that the NYT is reprinted and read all over the world. This is not just a single newspaper in a single city. The NYT is also highly respected (not that it really deserves it), so a lot of people will read it.
The next step IMHO should be USA Today. That too is a globally printed newspaper and usually has a different reader base than NYT.
My only concern in that they might have set a precedence with including names of donors. Let's face it. How many of you who donated did so more (not only, but more) because of the "coolness" factor of having your name printed instead of the core purpose of supporting a great browser?
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I am not, and maybe I just missed it. Why wasn't the word "FREE" prominent in the advert? Or do I have to pay for FF1.0?
You can download the pdf version from:
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/
There also a link there to the mozillastore where you can order posters.
That's great, FireFox is soaring. I just hope that Linux will get this kind of press later on. FireFox is all around the news.
Might there be more than one Nathan Campbell who donated? Or he could have donated twice.
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
Firefox is free, and you can run your other programs along with it too.
Most of the readers will be unaware that Firefox does not suffer from the security problems that IE does. They may simply answer the question: "Are you fed up with your web browser?" with: "Nope. works fine"
I just saw it, and having been aware it was coming in advance, I still skipped those two pages and kept reading. Does anyone actually pore over the ads?
Much more effective would be ads on regular web sites, since that is the actual target audience. But I guess this was more OSS community validation and bolstering self image (i.e. wanking) than about attracting new users anyway.
I was honestly surprised to see 'nothing to lose' instead of the more likely 'nothing to loose' in the ad.
This should do wonders for the NYT. I know I'm going to go out and buy a copy.
Badass Resumes
PS/BTW
/* and I'm guess, that's coz' the 'text' isn't text-text, but instead is only the outline of the text ... which get treated like 'an object of a kind' ... which the 'find' tool can't search ....
How I know this? ... is becouse I zoomed in to 400%, took the first name 'Oliver', and used 'find' on it ... and it displayed: "No occurrences of ... Oliver ... where found in the document." */
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
They're sorted in alphabetical order of the last name, so it won't take that long... took me only a minute... mostly waiting for Acrobat to load.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Mozilla needs a better way to get updates to Administrators. I love the product and use it all the time at home and work. I also mention it every chance I get. But it needs a way to get patches installed, instead of reloading the whole product or figuring out what files need replaced with a folder compare. What say ye!
Regis Tration-Required
I don't keep a lid on my coffee so when I walk around I look busy -me
That I have been too, anyway. Even the one stuffed in the corner of a supermarket in the booming metropolis of Owings Mills, Maryland. I used to be a consultant for high-priced & crappy ["maximise consultant's fees"] software... pretensiousness was our natural aroma. :)
Sometimes seventeen/Syllables aren't enough to/Express a complete
Most people are *not* fed-up with Internet Explorer. There's nothing significantly wrong with it, except that it is full of security holes. Most people don't know about the security holes, however, and Microsoft does indeed patch them. The big downside to FireFox is that all of a sudden you can't use a whole bunch of sites that rely on ActiveX controls. Well, plus slashdot.org *still* doesn't render reliably with FireFox (I usually have to hit reload several times, or else the stories aren't visible).
I disagree. It is true that there are a lot of web savvy users that read the NY Times, but, speaking from my experience of people I've migrated to Firefox, you'd be surprised about the number of them who had maybe *heard* of it, but hadn't given it enough thought to give it a try. Perhaps this will give them enough of a push in the right direction so that they will actually give it a try. It's hard to motivate someone to go out to a webpage and download a piece of software to replace an existing piece of software, especially when they still don't have a clear picture of how much better the replacement is. It's like convincing someone to change to a newer, better tasting cereal, when lots of them really are quite happy with the cereal they have... If only they'd try that new cereal, though, you know they'd be hooked.
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
The SFX team provided a page for misspelled names and typos.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
That big white streak in the middle? Yeah... My name's under that.
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Air freshener companies must pay you royally for your lilac smelling dumps.
So it's a pleasure to finally find ourself at the time, when we can count the downloads as un-biased.
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
i never saw the firefox logo at such high resolution before - so waht planet is he sitting on? doesn't look like the earth!
BP http://www.card-central.com
You can find it on page A24 ronstoney
I just want to know, I'm going to get a copy.
I guess that most people who read that newspaper already got firefox, or wont let some ad decide what browser they are using (If they were, we would see MS servers all ofer the place...)
It is not that people will decide based on an ad. It is to create awareness. People at least know the name. It is the same with marketing for any product other than that depend on whimsical buys.
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
I should have done this. I could have been the first name! Regards, Aaron A Aaronson
So I picked an area of the pdf at random and zoomed in... and there's this name, Marc Wandschneider, repeated five times. Immediately followed by Samantha Wandschneider, another five times. Whuh?
Are there actually 10 Jon Stanley's or do they just really really really like that person ?
++fd
I'd be curious to know how much this ad actually cost. I've been searching the linked pages, and spreadfirefox.com and I can't find the figure. Does anyone know?
I turned up the volume when I was looking at the ad, but I didn't hear anything...
If your Acrobat Reader takes an age to load, download Adobe Reader Speedup from http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/prods/misc/index.ph p and it will quite fantastically speed up the loading time, mine now takes around 3 seconds. Fantastic.
I can't find a post here that says how much money was spent to run this ad.
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
And they're getting paid a nice chunk of money to run it too. What a racket.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
but the 'text' of the names, isn't really text-text (as I point out here).
so you can't search for your name.
PS. Since then, I've also tried to 'selecet' with the 'text select'-tool
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
Advertising works. It may not yield even a percent of the readers. But it's a very valuable target-audience.. Non-technical IE-users.
Remember, there are no stupid questions. But there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.
"Browser War Continues: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit."
"Hi, I'm Al Gore, inventor of the internet. When I'm surfing the web, I like to use a little program I invented called Mozilla Firefox. It's got moxie!"
Not a troll mods, read on.
Eh Internet explorer "limits extensions" aswell. You still have to click yes to the install prompt. The only difference is firefox doesn't give you the option by default.
Close integration with windows is not an issue. Remember the firefox shell exploit?? Most of the flaws in IE are cross site scripting expoits. This is firmly IE's problem.
Hey, did you notice 'Cowboy Neal' on the 100th line?
I cant see the ad, I use Firefox WITH adblocker.
I downloaded a copy of FF today for my XP desktop at work. Sorry, I think I screwed up the download stats. Now the Moz foundation will never know for sure how well the ad worked because of my thoughtless mistake :)
Success is as dangerous as failure, hope as hollow as fear.
It is a perfectly valid observation that Firefox exploits will be on the rise the more it gets used. Now that IE has it's own popup blocker that whole pre-XPSP2 logic has been eliminated, giving many people no reason at all to switch.
Would pay of course price of newspaper and shipment to Switzerland.
While this ad is ok, I have ask what do the second, third and fourth advertisement look like? When will they run? How long will they run?
In order to market this product, perhaps a long term campaign that stresses all the ways Firefox will make interent browsing easier would be good.
One ad can simply state: "No pop up ads. EVER" with the firefox logo and link to download it. Another ad could highlight the best, most useful extensions. I think the weather update/forecast extension would be perfect for this.
Also: Are there ANY ads appearing on the NYT website, or any other high traffice website? This would make it easy to download the program.
Has anybody a photo of people reading the paper
with the ad in it? I want to see how it looks
in "real life". NYT is a very large broadsheet?
For those who haven't seen it in print yet, the ad is on pages A34 & A35.
I still recall the day when IBM announced the PC and DEC ran the ad "Welcome to the club"...
I expect the rest of my IT career will involve using Free/Open Source software more and more...which is fine with me. I like stuff that works and works well.
(By the way, I am one of those folks who can kill Novell networking software just by logging on...wish I had the same talent for Windows...)
Supreme Granter of Doctor of Obviology Letters ("A FIRM Command of the Obvious")
As it renders slowly, and it's kind'a hard to navigate about when you are zoomed in at 300% .... it would be a breeze if you could just roll down in the bookmarks to your name ... *click* .. and *presto* you're at your name!
BTW, what's up with them being alphabetical in/on the page as well?
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
When "open source" is used as an adjective, don't you have to put a hyphen there?
Open source is a good thing.
So is open-source software.
Firefox is a free, open-source web browser.
(IANA native English speaker - maybe that's why my spelling is generally better than an average American's...)
him, Him!!!
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
This strikes me as more of a vanity move than a real marketing move.
I paid for my name to be put in the ad. I admit it was purely for personal business reasons. I support and install Firefox all the time for me clients that are constantly bogged down in spyware. Having an NYT ad that will be framed on my wall with my name on it gives this unheard of browser more credibility in the minds of my clients. Gives me some free press as well even if I have to point it out to people.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
Is it just me, but are there differences between the print article and the PDF that was released? My name is in two different locations.
him, Him!!!
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
1) How long does it take for an exploit to be fixed (FF v IE)?
2) Is upgrading to repair a security flaw in the browser free/inexpensive for the user? Or are upgrades limited in an attempt to force the user to buy something else from the maker of the browser?
Yes, there are women on Slashdot. Deal with it.
but, yeah, if I would figure out the equivalent of my name of the binary of the 'Outline(s)' we'd be in business ... just give me the font-name, size, special-font-settings ... etc .. :-)
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
Its disappointing because there is no mention of extensions. This is the single most important reason I use Firefox for. The ability to block ads in Firefox (using extensions like adblock) should be used as a selling point.
I received nil advance notification, which is a bit disappointing.
However, the ad is impressive although I agree with another poster that spreading it over days would have ensured more prolonged coverage.
Well done!
Insert
Women may not be turned on by that, but I heard Dr. Evil thought it was pretty cool.
Mmm'kay Scott?
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
My name is in different spots between the so-called final PDF and the newspaper version in my hands.
WTF?
him, him!!!
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
Ain't it typical of a liberal rag like the New York Times to accept this anti-corporate (and by extension, anti-democracy!!) propaganda in their filthy pages!? Shouldn't the red color of the Mozilla Mascot tip you off on what kind of operation this is!?
I'm extremely happy that Firefox is catching on so well. I've been supporting Mozilla since it first started. I've always been touting it as the best browser available.
Although, secretly I've been using Safari. Don't tell.
I wish Mozilla would put out some decals so absolute devotees could print out to iron-on paper for homemade Mozilla shirts.
good god get over it. sig is cute btw
Join me in letting Wells Fargo know. They've recently changed their credit card website to not accept anything but IE, Netscape or AOL. Denies Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc, but it used to work, and their regular online banking website still works with most browsers. I did tell them that I wouldn't use their card until they fix it.
They may simply answer the question: "Are you fed up with your web browser?" with: "Nope. works fine"
Oh, but I'm sure EVERYONE has heard of the infamous MyDoom virus, and I'm also sure that EVERYONE knows at least one person who has been infected by MORE THAN ONE of these viruses. The IE6 exploits are now famous, and people have come to accept Internet Explorer being "vulnerable to attacks", as "facts of life".
The NYTimes ad will put all of those people to consider.
On the other hand, perhaps doing an opinion survey on "what do you think about the insecurities of Internet Explorer?" would have a subliminal effect on those people searching for alternatives. Maybe we could post this on USA Today, or the Enquirer.
"Opinion survey"
* Have you been infected by a virus while browsing the internet? ()Never ()Once ()More than once ()Many times
* Has you or one of your friends been infected with Spyware while browing the internet?
()Never ()Once ()More than once ()Many times
* Have you ever had to reinstall Windows (TM) due to virus or spyware problems?
()Never ()Once ()More than once () Many times
* What do you think of the latest security flaws of Microsoft Internet explorer (TM)?
[3 blank lines should be printed here]
* If there was a viable alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer, would you consider about switching? () Yes () No Why? [3 blank lines should be printed here]
* Have you ever heard of the Firefox browser?
()No ()Once () More than once
* If you have tried it, mention 3 things you didn't like about it.
1. [blank line]
2. [blank line]
3. [blank line]
If you like to cooperate in this survey, please visit www.browsersurvey.com. No personal information required.
----
So, I think that a "survey" (heheh) like this would really have an effect on the masses. What do you think?
Even so, IE also crashes like a mofo and it lacks built-in popup blocking, tabbed browsing, and cool plug-ins like the web developer plug-in and forcastfox. And I love being able to directly report bugs to bugzilla and track. It is great to see people take interest in fixing bugs I report.
Honk if you're horny.
This attempt at a "Hail Mary" pass or "swinging for the fences" cannot possibly be as effective as a groundswell of support initiated by those very people whose names appear in this 2-page spread.
Instead of raising all this money to see their names in lights ONE TIME, why not send them out to every weblog, web bulletin board, mailing list, support comment area, guest book...in short EVERYWHERE they can to leave 5 or 10 plugs that link back to spreadfirefox.com
This should be in addition to those in support positions, whatever their job description, advocating the use of Firefox to the user base and sneaking Firefox onto systems. "We've secretly changed Homer Simpson's Internet Explorer web browser over to the new Firefox web browser. Let's watch on hidden camera..."
"Mmmmm...Firefox...."
slashdot: A failed experiment.
This is great to see!
First, some nitpicky stuff. The quotes are probably not what I would've gone with... to my eyes, they're highly subjective. As far as I'm concerned Firefox isn't faster than IE or Opera (and has some annoying stalls at times). Others will say that IE is faster, or Opera is faster, or, indeed, that Firefox is much faster. The stability is also arguable, and its perception will differ from person to person. (and yes, I have been using Firefox exclusively since a day or two after 1.0, but not because of its speed or stability!) And finally, 10 million downloads != 10 million users.
Really, the only reason the above bother me is that they are vague and highly subjective, and could easily be used against Firefox in a counter-campaign (by who? Hmmm...)
Having said that, the above (and several other posts pointing out how the ad could have been better) is partly missing the point. I think this ad is really about accomplishing two things for Firefox: legitimacy and brand awareness.
For those who are only marginally aware of open source, free might mean coded by a bunch of amateurs in their spare time, and definitely not the same quality as something produced by a company with billions of dollars behind it (you have to admit, there IS some kind of perverse logic to that...) If I held that (mis)conception, and saw a 2-page ad in the NYT, I might change my mind. At the very least, I would think that Firefox is backed up by some major companies as well, and thus has no reason not to be in the same ballpark as Microsoft products. Hey, I wouldn't have learned anything about open source, but one step at a time. With luck, this line of thinking (or an equivalent conversation) might happen in many companies, leading them to consider Firefox as a real alternative.
Brand awareness is also pretty simple. I don't think this ad is meant to have anyone put down their paper, run to their computer, and hold their breath while they're downloading Firefox. It really is about taking that fuzzy area labelled "Internet" in most people's brains and creating a small partition with Firefox and a cool logo in it. That partition will get larger and larger with every time they see Firefox mentioned in the future, until one day, as they're struggling to get control of their browser back from pop-ups, a link is made and they realize they don't have to put up with it anymore.
And lastly, as was mentioned many times before, talk and news of the ad have, and will, probably generate at least as much publicity as the ad itself.
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
I paid for my name to be put in the ad. ... Gives me some free press as well even if I have to point it out to people.
:)
Don't you mean, gives you some free press, but all you had to do was pay for it?
Throw away that tired old web browser! With Firefox you get SECURITY, STANDARDS Compliance, all in one easy payment of not $100, not $50, not $25, but, FREE. Yes it's free!
This is my sig.
Instead of taking out an ad in the paper, the money should have been spent renting one of the high end NYC clubs, setting up a LAN with a bunch of machines running Firefox, and hiring a bunch of models to escort invitees to the machines and encourage the invitees to try the software. The invitees would be people who show up in the Intelligencer column of New York magazine. This would be more effective than an ad. You need to get influencers to use the product and they'll spread the Firefox gospel by word of mouth.
I am completely serious here. The ad was a waste of money. Better to have put together a TV ad with a hot model talking about the product.
Of course, this doesn't come as a surprise to me. Most slashdotters probably hate marketing people almost as much as they hate Microsoft.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
I only counted 9,998 names...
The eServer zSeries Z900 has two fairly recent thinkpads inside it, to IPL the machine in the event that you need to restart it after a disaster. They run OS/2, because IBM did not consider Windows to be of sufficiently high quality.
I don't know what's in the newer zSeries (z990 T-Rex and friends), but I doubt the perceived quality of Windows has increased.
Phil
I guess today is a passable day to die.
AOL and Netscape wasn't in the special thanks section.
Don't forget that they had to toe the line between being a non-profit advocate and selling a product. Had they taken a more aggresive stand, they wouldn't have gotten the non-profit rate.
What, no PDF? SVG?
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
They had said there would be a surprise in the ad. I don't see anything surprising. Am I missing it?
--- What?
"Connecting "http://www.goat.cx/..."!!!!!!
Phew....
this reminds me of the dotcom companies in the heyday that spent all of their venture capital on a superbowl ad and then went out of business six months later.
TODO: come up with a clever sig
I have a Greek newspaper it is about 37cm by 29cm. The average American paper is 55 cm by 31cm. I do not know where you live but I wish the newspapers here were the size of Greek papers. You can read the Greek papers without having to take them apart unlike American papers which are like opening up a huge ass street map. It is a nightmare to read the things. What the hell is wrong with this country some times!
Anyone got some funny names, that didn't get sieved out by the detectives?
"There are quite a few marketing negatives that go along with the word "Free," especially for software, such as "lack of quality," "unsupported," and "spyware-laden." The ad gives it the importance it deserves."
I really disagree. The greatest quality of FireFox is that it is free in all senses, but particularly in the sense of freedom. The negative connotations of "free" that you cite are precisely what need to be overcome for FireFox to gain use. There are also ways that "free" could have been prominently mentioned that have very positive connotations, such as "Freedom from popup adds", "Freedom from spyware", "Freedom to experience the Web as it should be.
As for the "1.0", I'm not so sure. It does indeed convey that this a non-beta release of a new product, but 1.0 releases of software have their own negative connotation with a lot of people, particularly PHB types. I can hear them saying "It's not mature or stable enough, let's wait until 2.0" without even trying it. I wouldn't be offended if the Mozilla folks bump up the version numbers a bit quicker than necessary just to counteract this sort of thinking.
(Firefox )
Do you have to think in Russian to use the browser, by the way?
You must think in Russian.
Just use Opera and press keypad + several times.
HTH.
Anyone else having problems? Gpdf, kghostview, xpdf aren't taking this pdf too well.
A geek's true Christmas wish come true:
First name on the ad!
The word "free" is only mentioned once and in tiny, tiny type. If I were reading the paper, and I didn't immediately avoid this ad in the first place, I would probably never see that reference. And, not knowing what Firefox is, I would assume there was a cost attached.
I do not agree with this. In the minds of most people, browsers are free - IE is free, Netscape was free (though you could pay extra, but who did?).
Especially now, people expect the browser (or really anything to do with the internet) to be free - so there is not need to reaffirm something they already know. Instead it's better to carry across the other components of the message the general reader may not know.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wonder if they test marketed the ad on the Average Joe (not Average Joe Coder) before putting it in the NYT. They should have gotten testimonials from famous people. Not random people from around the world. "That guy in New Zealand says it's good" doesn't sell it to anybody. And may actually hurt the ad.
Anytime I see a random person quoted as claiming a movie is good in an ad, I know it's not. The amount that it's bad can be determined by how many times they mention the same person's name with different parts of his quote. We've all seen those "real movie goer reaction" ads and they're always used for less than stellar movies.
I think they should have gone from quotes from say people who work at IBM or Intel. Or other big names that people recognize.
Or just done away with the quotes and just make it informative.
Work Safe Porn
Very cool. But what the hell is that supposed to be a map of that the fox is looking at?
I heard to search for 10 minutes to find this information! I needed to tell someone where to look ...
One simple rule for its versus it's
One thing they should do is to place links on the download page to the most popular/useful extensions. People are going to look for features they are used to in IE that are implented in exts in ff and need to be able to find them easily. The link at the firefox page just links to the mozilla update page. From there you have to click the extensions tab. And then the extensions page (to me) doesn't seem very user friendly.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I don't if any of you have noticed, that a German initiative called Firefox Kommt! (Firefox comes!) http://www.firefox-kommt.de has collected money from over 2400 people. They published the ad in the biggest German Newspaper FAZ http://www.faz.net .
You can download the ad here http://www.firefox-kommt.de/?q=anzeige .
Advertising works.
But you are aware it costs money? Real money, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for a one shot two page ad, not the use of someone else's banwith that spam costs. If spam has a 1/10000 sucess rate at $10 in sending costs, it is a bargain. If a two page ad has a 1/10000 sucess rate at $300,000 in advertsing costs, it is a disaster.
So that single ad, backed by no coherent marketing strategy got what, 20 new users? Why not just find those 20 people and write them a check for $7,000 a piece? It would be a better use of resources.
Attention fan boys: just because you like the product or the ideology that goes along with it doesn't mean you must like every idiotic thing that the foundation does.
But please not Suse. ...
...
Suse let their customers way down - charging for support - which only tarnishes the name of Linux.
Mandrake have been showing some nvidia installing headaches lately.
Red Hat (Fedora) - mmm I don't know, Red Hat is deemed the Microsoft of the Linux movement. Also they've let a lot of people and business in the lurch. Hence White Box Linux
Damn this is hard one
That fact that it's free and always will be free should be a little more obvious, shouldn't it? It does mention it in the small blurb, but will readers get that far?
Perhaps the creators are over-estimating the average joe's knowledge of open-source.
When big businesses buy a PC or Laptop,
they must buy OEM-Pre-loaded copy of Windows (Activation BS included)
Then they blank the HD and install their Corporate Image of Windows
which is the Volume License version (Activation BS avoided)
They then pay M$ for each Volume License they use
and, of course, they don't get refunded for the OEM copy they had to buy to get the hardware.
So, 2 licenses for every PC!!
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
I've been using Firefox for several months now and I won't go back to IE. In fact, I configured my firewall to block IE's network access.
The main strategy behind this is "it feels good to kick MSFT". Everyone does that since the 80s.
It's like kicking a sandbag. There's no real strategy behind it, the goal is not really to move it, and it hurts a little when you hit (the wallet). But it feels sooooo good afterwards!!
sorry :(
Oh yeah! The ad for Mozilla Firefox is in the centerfold of the frontpage section of today's (Thursday, December 16, 2004's) issue of The New York Times. Now that is something to pin up on your wall!
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
Why not create a webpage with black and white ads for firefox in various sizes in PDF format. Then start a grassroots campaign where people inclined to donate could use those PDF files to take out small ads in local newspapers across the country. Prices of course vary but small black and white ads can be quite affordable for small newspapers which reach only a few thousand readers. I think such a campaign could dramatically increase exposure. ...just an idea.
The odds are getting pretty damn good that users have upgraded to XP. Talk to your cable guy.
W2K was never significant in the home, but, even among developers, XP has 60% of the market. OS Platform Statistics
How much did you pay to put your name in this ad?
microsoft is simply doing what they always do. they are waiting, and letting others do the work. it's what they did in the first place with the web browser; they let netscape build the browser that people wanted, then they took the ideas and built their own and shoved it into the face of the masses with the os. same thing they did with their whole f'n os back in the day.
they're doing it again. they won the browser war, now they are backing off and letting the mozilla organization pave the way with new browser features. then in time, they'll take their $ and development team, build all those features into a new IE, and shove it back in people's faces, and *poof* other browsers will go away again.
for christ's sake, people on even this site will still put down mac os x, even tho it's laughable to even compare mac os x to windows anymore.
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/3749
# How much does the ad cost? What kind of other "launch expenses" will this pay for? How do I know that people aren't pocketing my money?
All donations go directly to the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that is subject to financial controls. It is hard to give specific numbers for the cost of the ad and the other launch-related expenses. For example, we are negotiating a discount rate for the ad itself and it is not clear that we are at liberty to publicly announce that rate. A portion of the proceeds from this campaign will be used for public relations-related expenses. We cannot just disclose how much we pay our PR firm, especially since they are providing a significant amount of "pro bono" (free of charge) services. We do plan to disclose the total amount of funds raised through this campaign and how the funds were used. Rest assured that your donation will be used entirely to fund the launch of Firefox 1.0!
OOPS! I totally screwed that one up. It should be 1 in
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While you are correct that effective marketing indeed has specific, limited objectives (and measureable results) -- this ad is definitely not one designed to prompt users sick of IE to check out the web site.
I say this without seeing a creative brief for the ad, but it's purpose appears to simply be to announce the 1.0 release of Firefox, which it does well. The ad is nicely done in that respect.
However, if it is intended to prompt users sick of IE to check out the site/new browser, it is poorly executed for a number of reasons not limited to:
To address some of your points:
Version numbers mean little to most people unless your target audience is current users and your purpose is to let them know a new version exists. But even then you need to carefully qualify that it's in fact a new version or they may the message. As someone already mentioned, with potential new users, you run the risk of people thinking 1.0 < 6.0 = less mature = not as good.
"Free" is a huge catch-phrase that gets results. The trick is to pay it off appropriately. In advertising world, we (usually) look forward to when we can legitimately include the word 'free'
Testimonials are only effective depending on the message, medium and target audience and only when used correctly. In this case they are very appropriate, but executionally are lacking.
Like I said though -- to announce Firefox 1.0 the ad is great (and much nicer better than what I feared it would be). And as I said a previous post though, now we need to see followup ads that do meet the objective you outlined.
In New York, only old people carry .38s
www.DIYTVAntennas.com
Actually the number of women and girls using computers doesn't differ greatly from that of men, at least so the studies show. The difference appears to be identification with the world of computing, and participation in activities around computers (like /., or signing on to a Firefox ad). There was a time about ten years ago when I saw figures saying that the majority of computer users at work were women, probably due to jobs in data entry and other office work. So your statement "representational of how much women *like* computers" pretty much nails it.
I just read
Did Mozilla Suite ever have a two-page ad in <understatement>a major American newspaper</understatement>? This shows that Mozilla Foundation got its sh!t together w.r.t. security before the ad campaign, unlike Microsoft.
What page in the NYT does the ad appear on?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Dammit... someone solved the Magic Eye puzzle before I could get a crack at it.
What? You thought it was a serious post?
But did Al Gore invent all the internets?
An example from there: "a man-eating shark" is a carnivorous fish, while "a man eating shark" might be taken to mean a carnivorous male human.
Like a 180 lb. man eating chicken, right?
Is this from today's paper? Or did it just hit the presses and therefore coming out soon?
IIRC, an ad in the Times, full page, A section, costs about ~$100,000, give or take a few thou. So it's safe to assume they spent around 200,000 to 250,000 for the ad. I suppose you can do the math of names / that :)
No graphics.
No foofy stylized text.
1D tables.
Color optional.
Mouse optional.
The Web as it was *meant* to be...
Lynx 2.8.5*
(*) 14.4k modem not included.
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla and Firefox browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves a placeholder on the page that allows you to click to view the Flash content.
Actually, I've had zero crashes since installing 1.0 about 2 weeks ago. But I normally don't have many crashes anyways, maybe once a month, and I have about 10 extensions active.
I'm also running on a nforce2 mobo (k7n8x), athlon 3200+, windows xp sp2, 1 gig pc3200 ram.
Joseph?
I was ready to set up a new bogus password, too. Complete with useless personal information.
Didn't do maths after highschool. But is it 1 in 10000! (Factorial, not exclamation)
I am all for Firefox and enjoy it at home and work, but I am not for false advertising.
I read Firefox crossed 10 Million downloads and this ad is being timed to the 11 million download mark, but the ad reads something to the effect of: come see what 30 million users world wide already know. there is an alertnative.
Let's see, this is assuming I guess that 1 download reaches 3 people? I disagree. I have downloaded firefox to 3 computers myself. That's 1 download = 1/3 people. Now, one was my wifes' computer so I guess that means 3 downloads = 2 people or 1 download = 2/3 of a person in my particular situation.
Still, where is the 30 Million number coming from in the ad?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Arggh. Your system is out of virtual memory!
:D
(i tried to view it in-browser [with acroread])
fucken firefox!
I really couldn't care less about this Firefox ad and its adoption rate. So what? A bunch of you worked FOR FREE to create a browser. Great...that and five bucks will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Actually, it's ironic. I prefer Firefox for myself, but don't want the masses to use it because I use popups on my sites so the "everything should be free as in beer" freeloading crowd actually pays for my bandwidth.
I decided to run to the closest Barnes and Nobles before they close at 9pm, and bought a copy of NY Times.
On the left page, the names in the solid black print are legible, but the area covered by shaded graphics looks fudgy due to halftoning of greys. However, it seems that no name was masked in the two white "comma shaped" highlights. They printed the names around the white hallow.
I once had a signature.
I've noticed no mention of Scribus. It puts out correct PDF.
Today's Hits
IE: 182273 85.6 %
Firefox: 9741 4.5 %
The rest to 100% total are Mozilla, Opera, etc. Firefox didn't show up in the list until October at 2.4 %. It will be interesting to see how it goes after this NYT ad.
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
"If that doesn't make any sense, then this angle might: when I have a choice to view something then it is good, when it is crammed into my psyche that is bad. I choose to look at this Firefox ad: good. Banner ads wasting my attention: bad."
Your inability to turn off the TV must be frustrating.
Seems that releases of Firefox's German language release had spyware embedded in the browser.... I for one, am not to happy about that!
I paid for my name to be put in the ad. ... Gives me some free press as well even if I have to point it out to people.
:)
Don't you mean, gives you some free press, but all you had to do was pay for it?
And advertize it.
I donated some cash to this project, and, as I recall, was supposed to get an email the morning the ad came out.
Nothing in my inbox. I'm sitting here at at 11pm searching through my spam folder and finding nothing. Anybody get the email?
Oh, well. At least there're all those pdf's out there.
I can't find my name...there's another Mazzoni, but not me. I just double-checked that I paid...I still have the PayPal receipt. Anyone else in this boat?
I sent an email to their address for corrections.
What a waste of time!
Firefox is slow.
Firefox freezes up(even on new installs).
I have done tests and it shows that IE loads faster than Firefox.
IE loads pages much faster than firefox.
Do the tests yourself, and you will see.
Idiots use firefox.
How fake are they...? For me this looks as unprofessionals as on shopping TV. I wonder why advertisers want to make intelligent angry by thuinking I am so stupid that I believe in faked 'user opinions'. But of course I miss the point, the ad was probably for an audience who believe this stuff and get more manipulated by someone imaginary claiming "it's great" or "it's easy". Btw, why is the fox in the logo turning the back to the user?
This add is likely to generate a lot of spin-off publicity, simply because the concept is new. So it will (hopefully) be good value for the money.
However, any additional ads will not generate the same spin-off, so they will only have the direct effect of the add. And there is no way Firefox can compete MSIE on a dolar for dolar marketing campaign.
IE != Windows XP SP2.
There are plenty of people running operatings systems other than XP with SP2.
Where is their pop up blocker?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/business/yourmon ey/19digi.html?ex=1261198800&en=01ccc9efcac373bd&e i=5090&partner=rssuserland
Watch out for the wraping and white spaces that occur inside this pasted link.
Love,
Karma Whore
Too bad they are slowing down already. Last time I checked they were at about 13,000,000. I was hoping they would get a lot higher than that before the rate slowed down. I've saved a few of their download buttons for future use (and cause they looks so good), and hope to use them soon. Good thing that heavily used sights are picking up the links, which should help all around.
International award winning hair styling and hair coloring salon for men and women including glamorous up dos and fancy bridal hair updos as well as pictures of current and latest hair styles for short, medium and long hair, bobs, waves, bangs and more. Pictures and photos coming soon.