Firefox is moments away from releasing Version 3 and Beta 4, whilst accusing Apple of backhand tactics in pushing Safari 3.1. The Great Browser Race is back on, but what should you go for?
Firefox users are a bit like Mac users - they’ll swear by it and scoff, nay spit, at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer… and at Apple’s Safari. What makes the browsers different? Lots of things. But most of these things are things I don’t really notice, or care about. SSL vs HTML rendering speed? I just don’t know the difference and I’m sure most people out there don’t either. What I do really notice is the things that make a difference to my online experience. A real difference not a difference in milliseconds. Add ons (or plug ins) are nothing new. Originally conceived as “myIE”, Maxthon was built on the back of customisability in 2003 and now claims to have over 1,400 plug ins. These are not unfamiliar to many browsers and Firefox is embracing them as a clever marketing tool.
If you decide to explore options apart from your incumbent Internet Explorer or Safari, I urge you to check out Firefox (and Opera for your mobile). I’m an advocate and customisability is what attracted me. The del.icio.us and eBay add-ons speed up my browsing, whilst the clever Foxmarks means my bookmarks are the same on my browser, no matter which computer I’m at. I can even control my iTunes with FoxyTunes without changing window and add feeds direct to NetVibes with one click. There’s plenty more but those are my staple.
What really interested me recently was Firefox’s decision to market a Campus Edition. I’m pushing 30 and beginning to learn to live without irresponsiblity, but I want the cool student version too. Sadly it’s not that cool. It’s just Firefox pre-installed with 3 add-ons: FoxyTunes, StumbleUpon and Zotero (spaces are sonotcoolrightnow). That’s a bit of a sham. But not really, because it’s all free anyway. In fact, I think it might be quite clever. Mozilla is losing the speed war with Safari and hasn’t launched Version 3 yet despite Safari’s recent upgrade launch. So as a quick interim fix it is educating the new guard (who Apple already target with discounts) about Firefox’s key advantage over Safari - the ability to really customise your browsing experience. And I think that this is about as far as Mozilla should take it. Advertisers love to create customized packages for their different target demographics and often these choices just become confusing (am I a Racoon, a Dolphin, a Panther or a Canary? oh, go away). So I hope Mozilla knows where to stop. But in the meanwhile, the Campus Edition seems like a neat little trick to get us all thinking about Firefox’s USP - customisability.
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Doc 27 Mar 2008
ReportFirefox all the way buddy
Pristyles 27 Mar 2008
Reportcan i throw camino in the mix?
Tive 27 Mar 2008
ReportFor sure Pristyles. I am not familiar with it yet but probably should be seeing as it is designed specifically for Mac.
Nik Radford 27 Mar 2008
ReportCan you really call firefox part of the browser war when its open source? Upgrades get released when its done, and its used by many just because most find it a better user experiance than other browsers. When you make no money from something and its just out there for the sake of being ot there, can you see its competeing? Corporations who make money from similar product will say so, because they are losing money to it. But from the makers of the free software, do they say they are competing against the other browsers? Just musing an idea.
Tive 27 Mar 2008
ReportHi Nik, thanks for that. It sounds like you are talking about the difference between what Mozilla call “commercial goals [Apple] and public benefit [Mozilla]“. I think if one product steals market share from another company, then those two products are competitors, irrespective of whether one is open source or not. Although Mozilla’s Firefox is open source, it still needs it to be successful against other browsers. Making Firefox successful will have a halo effect on all the other Mozilla software (I have not seen any figures but I’m sure you could say FF is a gateway to a range of other Mozilla products) but more importantly, simply helps the Mozilla Foundation further their vision that “the Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.” Mozilla requires funding which it gains from contributors and its success as an NPO would fail without these contributions. Their manifesto has 4 goals, one of which is “to make Mozilla contributors proud of what we’re doing and motivate us to continue”. Motivate. They need money. I am pretty sure Mozilla sees Apple as a competitor and judging by their CEO John Lilly’s latest blog post, I think he does too. His job depends on it afterall.