One interesting aspect of the directory is that Mozilla decided to eschew a standard, table-based layout for the directory in favor of an HTML 5 canvas based design that focuses on the products' logos. Because of this, the directory will only work on modern browsers like Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, but Internet Explorer users will be locked out.

As of now, only a small number of tools are in the directory, but, keeping in style with the purpose of the directory, Mozilla is using a Google Spreadsheet that allows developers to submit their applications.

We have to say, however, that the layout of the directory can be rather confusing and given that all a user sees is a product's logo, it is rather hard to figure out what a tool really does. As Mozilla adds more products, it will only get harder to use, though thankfully, Mozilla does also offer a plainer version of the directory.

More to Come

In the long run, Mozilla also plans to roll out comments, more social features, and ranking tools (maybe similar to what Launchly does).

As is typical for Mozilla Labs products, Mozilla is releasing this early and encouraging feedback from the community.

For now, Mozilla will start the program with a survey that aims to get a better understanding of who is joining the Test Pilot community. The first actual tests should arrive soon after this first survey is complete.

Mozilla stresses that it will take its users' privacy seriously. Participants have to opt-in and data will be stored in anonymous form. Only aggregate test data will be made available to the public.

Overall, this looks like a great project. Usability studies tend to be slow and costly, yet with Test Pilot, Mozilla will be able to quickly enlist feedback about new design ideas from its large community of users.

According to an email we received from Mozilla, "Everyone should have the opportunity to know how to use the Internet, have easy access to it, and have a good experience when they're online. This new initiative is looking for people with a talent for writing, designing, programming, developing, or all-around technical know-how. Internet skills, no matter how novice or advanced, can change people's lives and make the Web better for everyone." Mozilla Service Week will take place from September 14-21, 2009.

According to the Mozilla Foundation's Executive Director, Mark Surman, this program is designed to allow all kinds of users to volunteer their time. Some of the skills required for the above-mentioned goals are as simple as data entry or basic web surfing.

"We're inviting people to get involved with Mozilla in an active way," he is quoted on the Mozilla blog, "even if they can't code, test, or localize. It lets anyone and everyone feel like they are contributing to the cause of building a better Internet."

Interested parties can learn more at the Service Week website. The site allows would-be volunteers to find ways to give their time and skills to the cause, and it also lets those in need, be they individuals or organizations, request help.

The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering openness, innovation, and opportunity on the Internet by supporting the community of Mozilla contributors and by helping those who build technologies that benefit users around the world.

Compared to Safari and Google Chrome, Firefox's JavaScript engine (TraceMonkey) is still a bit slower, though in day-to-day use, most users aren't likely to notice any real differences.

Obviously, this is a beta product and you will inevitably run into some problems (here is a list of known issues), but in our own tests with Windows 7 and on OSX, beta 4 felt very fast and, maybe more importantly, extremely stable. You should, however, be aware that a lot of plugins and extensions like Greasemonkey will not work in beta 4 yet, though usually it only takes a few days before developers update their programs.

Test Pilot is currently only a "still-in-concept platform," but the plan is to build a representative sample of Firefox users that will be recruited to evaluate new interface concepts and features.

How it Will Work

After the installation, the Test Pilot addon will gather non-personally-identifiable information from its users and then put these users into different demographic buckets. Depending on the tests that need to be run, users will be selected to participate in different experiments and will be asked to provide feedback on a regular basis. All the information gather through this plugin will be made available to the public.

This sounds like a great project, and we are happy to see that Mozilla is moving forward with this. It will probably still be a while before we see the fruits of this idea, however, as Mozilla is only now hiring a full-time developer to create the actual implementation of the Test Pilot program.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_test_pilot_usability_study.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_test_pilot_usability_study.php News Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:05:40 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Mozilla has cultivated one of the most interesting and healthiest ecosystems for extension developers around its popular Firefox browser. The problems with this, of course, is that whenever Mozilla releases a new version of Firefox, developers have to make sure that their software is compatible. For the next release of its browser, Mozilla aims to make sure that 90% of those add-ons that make up the top 95% of add-on usage will be compatible with the latest version of Firefox. The release of Firefox 3.1 is still a while off, but currently only 28% of the top extensions are ready for the transition.

According to Mozilla's Justin Scott, 861 add-ons make up 95% of the total usage, while the other 5% are distributed among close to 5000 add-ons. 94% of the top add-ons are currently compatible with Firefox 3.0.

According to Mozilla's compatibility dashboard, as of today, only about 28% of the top 861 extensions are compatible with the latest builds of Firefox 3.1.

Getting to 95%

Currently, Mozilla's evangelism team is trying to reach out to all Firefox developers to make sure that everybody is ready by the time Firefox 3.1 is released. The release date for Firefox 3.1 is currently a moving target, but the second beta version should be available to the public by the end of this month, which might be followed by a third beta before the final version is released.

Some extensions, of course, are abandoned by their developers over time, so it might not be possible for Mozilla to get to the 95% mark for Firefox 3.1, but given the importance of Firefox and the extension ecosystem around it, it is good to see them reach out to developers proactively. For developers, getting ready for 3.1 should also be a priority, as Firefox users tend to update their browser very quickly after a new version is released.

For more information about the transition to Firefox 3.1 for extension developers, have a look at Mozilla's 'Add-on Compatability Center,' which will soon also feature additional tools for developers.

The moment has arrived, Mozilla has pushed the go-live button on Firefox 2. The new final 2.0 version of the browser is now available for everyone to download.

Read/WriteWeb has been actively covering the launch, most recently with a pre-launch interview with Chris Beard - Mozilla Vice President of Products. We've also reviewed the product and have additional notes on how Mozilla plans to market Firefox 2. Digg and Slashdot have additional commentary.

For a look at the competition, you may also want to check out our comparative review of Internet Explorer 7.

And the R/WW coverage doesn't stop there! We have a couple of other in-depth articles coming soon, one about Firefox add-ons and a special one on a yet-to-be-disclosed topic ;-)

Click here to read more on Jobwire about why Rouget's is our hire of the day.

Earlier this year, when we wrote about plans for offline apps in Firefox 3, Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla told us that applications would need to be reengineered to be taken offline with Firefox 3. That's not the case with Prism, which can take apps to the desktop as long as they run in the browser (though, as we mentioned, Prism doesn't actually take web apps offline, just puts them in their own desktop window).

The Mozilla Labs crew said that they're working on an extension for Firefox that will add Prism to the browser and make taking web apps to the desktop a one-click affair.

Except for the minor convenience of running oft-used web apps in their own dedicated window and making them accessible via a desktop icon, Prism isn't really all that exciting in its current form. It doesn't offer much of a benefit over bookmarks and your current browser window. However, the implications for the future are big. "This is a pretty huge deal," writes Ryan Stewart, "and it shows a trend that I’ve been preaching/tracking all along; that the desktop isn’t dead at all and that a hybrid approach is a successful way to go."

There is prototype of Prism for available on the Mozilla labs blog post, as well as links to the source code.

Two new additions to the Mozilla mobile team were also announced, Christian Sejersen and Brad Lassey, both mobile industry heavyweights. Sejersen will head a new R&D center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This sounds like great news to me. I spend more than an hour a day on a mobile browser; I feel dirty using IE mobile but can't stand the crawling fidelity and frequent freezing of Opera Mini. I will be very excited to bring extensions into a new mobile browser from Mozilla, the first will be a del.icio.us toolbar.

For more analysis of this and other mobile news, check out coverage from mobile industry experts Russell Beattie and JkOnTheRun.

Ever made a website that requires a file to be uploaded? Then you know how much that file upload control sucks. Why does it suck? Because there's no drag-and-drop; Flash or server-side hacking is required to provide any kind of progress indication; you can't upload multiple files; if you know what you want to attach you have to navigate there again with the OS file picker; you can't even enter a path into the widget because of security issues; and the list goes on.

Fair enough, what we currently have is slow and painful and could stand a lot of improvement. So how can you submit your idea? Easy, post it on the Web and tweet the location to Twitter account @mozconcept anytime before the afternoon of March 16, 2009. At that time, Mozilla Labs will be hosting a SXSW party where they will review the submissions and dig up the real gems.

If you can make it out to the Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill in Austin on the 16th, besides the beer and food, there will also be some interesting people to meet, such as Brendan Eich, javascript creator and Mozilla CTO, Atul Varma (@toolness) and/or Aza Raskin (@azaaza), Ubiquity co-lead developers, and John Resig (@jeresig), jQuery creator. We are thinking this is one SXSW gathering we can't miss. Plus, Moonshine has an awesome atmosphere and great grub.

We are two patches away from the meta goal of building from trunk. The tools changes have review from dougt, and are waiting for review from ted, who has promised review by the end of the week. NSPR changes are waiting for review from Nelson, who asked for and received a patch against NSPR trunk.

The HTC Touch won't be the first device that's able to run the Fennec browser - currently the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet can also run the mobile browser. In addition, anyone who's just curious about what Fennec will look like or how it will behave can test it out on their desktop by installing the appropriate version: either Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Want to see what Fennec looks like running on a Windows Mobile device? You can get an idea by checking out some of the images we found here on a Fennec developer's blog.

As the worlds second most popular browser, and with their recent milestone of reaching 20 percent worldwide market share, the folks over at Mozilla certainly have some celebrating to do.

Well done Firefox, you've come a long way; a 329 percent market share increase over four years. So, theoretically, if Firefox continues at the same growth rate, in another four years it will hit 85.67 percent market share.

Interesting.

Isn't this pretty much where IE was when Firefox came onto the scene?

Browser market share December 2004

Browser market share December 2005

Browser market share December 2006

Browser market share December 2007

Browser market share October 2008

Not too long ago, Google announced that it was going to stop the development of its Browser Sync project. Browser Sync automatically synchronized bookmarks between different computers. Mozilla just announced a new version of its own bookmarks synchronization product, Weave, which was first announced last December as a Mozilla Labs product. Its first version, while already interesting, wasn't quite up to par with Google's offering. With this latest version, Mozilla aims to fill the gaps left by the demise of Browser Sync - at least for Firefox 3 users.

Going Beyond Bookmarks

Besides just synchronizing bookmarks, Weave also saves cookies, passwords, form data, tabs, and the browsing history. These can be turned on and off selectively, though by default, they are all turned on. In the future, Weave will also start synchronizing themes, plugins, and microformats.

One noteworthy difference between Browser Sync and Weave is that Weave, at least in its current implementation, does not work in real-time. Weave will automatically schedule when to synchronize bookmarks or users can initiate the process themselves.

Mozilla has also implemented an initial framework for sharing data with XMPP-based notifications, but so far, it doesn't seem like there is any front-end access to this framework just yet. In the future, though, this could be used for all kinds of interesting projects and might provide a good way for Mozilla to tie all its different projects together closer.

API?

When the first version of Weave was released, it seemed Mozilla was going to provide developers with an API to hook into by version 0.2. However, the current release does not mention an API anywhere, so it looks like developers will have to wait just a little bit longer before they can start developing their own tools on top of the Weave framework.

Competition

There are, of course, already quite a few services available that provide a very similar function, most notably Foxmarks (which we named one of the Top 10 Firefox add-ons in 2006) and Del.icio.us. There are also numerous other bookmarking service available through plugins for Firefox (and IE) and while it has abandoned Browser Sync, Google hasn't (yet?) given up on the development of Google Bookmarks, though.

By making Weave part of the standard installation of Firefox at some point, though, and by providing a web front-end, Mozilla could easily bypass all of its competitors by providing a more seamless experience.

Nowhere is that more apparent than with GPS-enabled mobile platforms that use location-specific information to simplify the way people access and share content on a daily basis. Later today Mozilla will release Geode, a Firefox geolocation add-on which will enable localized content.

But where does that leave the typical laptop user? Mozilla Labs is working to answer that question.

In August, Mozilla announced the addition of support for geolocation information. In that announcement, Doug Turner said, "I would love to be able to get the UI support in Firefox. This would allow the 'extension' to be more or less the glue between a geolocation device and mozilla."

Tomorrow, Turner's wish may be coming true when Mozilla releases Geode, "a Firefox add-on that understands location, enabling enriched, personalized, and localized content."

VentureBeat has an early glimpse of Geode, but it is still "not entirely clear how it's pulling in the location data." Hopefully, the official announcement will shed more light on Geode.

Why Is Location Important for Relatively Static Users?

Clearly, geolocation information can improve the experience for mobile users, but why would this functionality be needed in the browser?

One answer jumps to mind: relevance.

Location-specific information is a passive—yet relevant—means of managing the growing complexity of the information on the Web. By enabling the dynamic localization of information in the browser, Mozilla may be helping users find truly relevant information, and in so doing, may make the Web an even more valuable resource.