Comments on: Forget Facebook. The Web's platform is Firefox

Mozilla has a huge opportunity on its hands with its Firefox browser. The key will be to shepherd its growth so that it remains a viable community offering.

[Frewgle]

The strategy looks promising and exciting. If they can make it seamless and "turnkey", they will be HUGE winners. Of course, anybody but Microsapt

[DBdweeb]

I read the article and I don't see it. The fact that the author concluded that Firefox is the platform of the future but was unable to make it clear tells me the he merely came under the sway and hype of those he interviewed.

Building Facebook pluggins for a specific browser would mean a lock in to a single browser. That's the antithesis of open and no case was made as to how this could be achieved. Very weak or incomplete reasoning and the article does not support the headline.

[tyman703]

Agreed. The reasoning was extrememly weak. I head a bunch of theories on why Firefox has potential for being a good brower, but not a good "Platform" (comparative to FaceBook, iPhone etc...)

[webpaulo]

Seriously... comparing Firefox (apples) to FaceBook (oranges)? FaceBook is an social "application" built to run on certain browser standards (i.e. Firefox, IE, Netscape). But I'm missing the point where Firefox relates to FaceBook and iPhone?!?!

Firefox competes (essentially) with Internet Explorer. A user can use either of these to render / view their favorite websites. Firefox is a very good standards based web browser, and IE is moving in that direction.... but in a perfect world, FaceBook should be browser independent. As such, there really is no comparison between FaceBook (an application) and Firefox (a browser).

[ssaikia]

It's great to see them make an attempt at honest, open innovation. It's good for users and it will be good for them as well.

[Zenglobal]

Web companies in general are attempting to be the first point of contact with users. Obviously, Firefox and IE, are technically the first point of contact when accessing the web. That doesn't mean that sites like facebook, myspace, yahoo, or google aren't trying themselves to be the first point of contact (this is where the article is making the comparison, not comparing application to browser). I can see the point of the article, however, it was much to do about nothing.

[bjbrock]

What a ridiculous idea. Sounds like a bad idea to trash a good browser.

[schetikos]

The Mozilla Foundation is arguably on the most important entities when it comes to connecting people to the vast amounts of information in every crevice of the world. When you think of it that way, it is on the same scale as the amount of water that covers our planet, and thus companies like Cisco continue to help traverse these waters that seem to be dominated by Firefox. From what I can surmise from this piece is that Firefox wants to make traversing these waters simple, pleasurable, safe and useful to all.

Conceptually, an organization like this requires big thinking and what they have been able to do is nothing short of simply amazing. They have mobilized a global community that is so deeply engaged and committed that no amount of resources by Microsoft could beat them. Mozilla has taken a page from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and is winning with a small, albeit superior and committed group of forces. To me, that is the point of the article and companies like Facebook are communities in this vast ocean and the Firefox experience ensures that people can zip around, connect and share with ease and comfort.

[David Gerard]

The reason Firefox is a "platform" and IE isn't is that Firefox runs on everything.

Really. I live in Firefox. Gmail for mail and chat, Foxmarks to synchronise my bookmarks. I bounce between several computers in a day (Windows XP, Mac OS X, Kubuntu Linux); I live in Firefox on all of them. The operating system underneath doesn't matter any more.

[techman21]

"Would I allow--indeed, beg--Firefox to collect information on these things in order to provide me more tailored advertising, social networking, etc.?"

NO NO NO NO NO!!