Rather than squabbling and pointing figures at competitors saying "but they do it", tech giants should see Mozilla as a role model. It didn't wait until public pressure mounted and the government forced its hand. Mozilla stepped up and heeded the FTC's request for a way to give control back to the citizens of the web. Maybe we need some sort of Presidential Medal of Internet Freedom to honor and encourage these kinds of contributions.I think this is actually a really insightful commentary -- not just because it's favorable on the surface, but because that is precisely the role that Mozilla has been filling since its inception. Mozilla does not want to own the user or the content or anything else. Mozilla exists to show what "doing the right thing" looks like with the hope that other vendors will follow because it's the right thing or because users having seen it in Mozilla products will demand the same fair treatment from all of the other vendors.
A decade ago, we pioneered tabbed browsing, integrated search, effective pop-up blocking, browser extensions, and a number of other features that are now commonplace in all browsers. We set an example, users flocked to Firefox, and other vendors were forced to respond. Their responses have made the Web a better place for everyone, even the billion or so users who aren't running Firefox. This is success in Mozilla's view. For a year, we've been working on Do Not Track and now that other vendors, including many of the largest websites in the world, are getting on board, the Web will become a better place for everyone, not just the the 500 million people using Firefox.
Over the years I've received a lot of questions like "Are you worried now that Microsoft has re-assembled the IE team and plans on shipping an IE 7(/8/9/10) that will certainly crush Firefox?" or "Does the rise of Chrome scare you"? and my answer has always been no. These are Mozilla successes. Choice, innovation, competition, these are fundamental aspects of Mozilla's non-profit mission. We make the Web better not by winning all of the users or being number one in browsing or search or apps or social but by setting an example and showing users and the industry what's possible. We do that as a public-benefit organization so the world knows that we are honest brokers and absolutely do not have profit or control as a motive. We ship those possibilities in products like Firefox and if we do a good job, market forces will drive our mission goals across the entire Internet products and services landscape.