The first public version of the browser called "Firefox" -- a 0.8 release, came out 8 years ago. With that release and the 1.0 release later that same year, we showed the world that browsers mattered.
Innovative new features like tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, spell-checking, integrated search, and browser add-ons, re-invigorated not just the browser market, but the entire Web. We put users in control of that mess of windows, and the horrible pop-ups from advertisers and malware makers. We made it simple for users to customize their experience and to find what they were looking for without jumping through a bunch of hoops.
In addition to those awesome new user-facing features, Firefox delivered great performance, stability, compatibility, and security at a time when Internet Explorer was falling down on most of those fronts. It wasn't enough to offer great user features, the integrity and quality of the product had to be top notch and it was.
Today, there are more compelling browser choices than ever before and all of the major browser vendors are delivering high-quality products with innovative new features, even Microsoft :-) This is good for users and good for the Web.
But browsers are not all the same. Each of the major vendors, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Mozilla are building Web browsers for very different reasons. They may resemble each other on the surface, but everything from the features they offer to users and to Web developers, to the myriad of user interface design considerations, to the distribution models, exist to serve very different interests.
Only Mozilla, a non-profit organization, produces a Web browser designed, first and foremost, to put users in control of their online experience.
The desktop browser is not the only part of the Web that impacts user control, security, and privacy, though, so in 2012 Mozilla is expanding its efforts and will be delivering a new standards-based Web Apps ecosystem, a user-centric identity system for the Web, and a cross-device strategy built around user empowerment.
Desktop Firefox in 2012 is going to do again what we did in 2004. We're going to deliver innovative features that put users in control. And we're going to give users the speed, stability, and compatibility that the modern Web demands. We're going further this year, though. We're going to help launch powerful new Mozilla products like Apps, Identity, and mobile.
There are a lot of pieces that will have to come together to make that vision a reality and in the coming days I'll be sharing more specifics here and in the Mozilla wiki. Stay tuned.