Version 4 of the Firefox browser, published by the Mozilla Foundation, was published Tuesday. Interview with Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe. According to the latest data NetMarketShare, Firefox accounts for 22% global market share, against 57% for Internet Explorer and 11% for Chrome. What are your goals with Firefox 4, you just start? Mozilla is a nonprofit organization and not with a view to maximizing profits.
This explains many decisions that might seem irrational if you stay in a traditional business, which is listed more. What we want is to have a seat at the table, be able to generate debate and to play the market to improve the Web. We consider the Web as a common good that must be protected.
And market share is a way to influence the market. We are not in a context of domination of the sector: if we end up with a four-browser market with relatively equal, that we would because we would always say. We suspect that below a certain level, 25-30% less than our current, we would lose weight on the market.
Google has released version 10 of Chrome and comes with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. How does your latest browser is she equipped to face off these competitors? Firefox 4 is a vast improvement over previous versions. A giant leap has been made in terms of speed: whether the loading of pages, the browser itself or the user profile.
To increase speed, we use a test program, open to volunteers who proposes to have a Firefox with software sensors, and provides insight into how the Internet uses the browser. This lets you know which part of its actions take more time to see how we can reduce the time. If thirty tabs open, we will first open the first load and the other in the background.
Objectively, it takes longer to download, but the perception of the user that the tab is needed is operational immediately. In total, there are hundreds of tips on optimizing the speed. We also optimized the javascript engine of the browser to display animation-rich Web sites. Finally, we rely on hardware acceleration, using the computer's graphics processor.
The computer has two processors, the central processor (CPU) processor and graphics card (GPU). So far, the GPU was not used for navigation, because it is a very particular processor. Depending on the operating system on Mac, Linux or Windows, you do not delegate the same things, but it happens for example to delegate certain functions such as anti-aliasing, which smooths fonts.
Chrome and Internet Explorer are also banking on speed, while Firefox users often complain about delays. How do you speed up Firefox? There is a chasm between older generations and modern browsers. In the light of a SunSpider test as example, we see very significant progress versions 3.0 through 3.5, 3.6 of Firefox, then in version 4.
But we also find that the latest versions of Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer are in the same court. To play on the browser market, it must be fast. But this is not enough. Today, in terms of speed, we fight over milliseconds, and changes are not visible to users. The battle is therefore particularly at the interface and usability? The more buttons, it is less clear to the user.
There is a real cost ergonomic add an additional button. With our software sensors, we know what buttons are used by the testers. The button "back" is for example widely used, which is not the case of a button referring to the RSS feed. Therefore we propose a new version 4 user interface, both simple and customizable.
Firefox has long been distinguished from other browsers with its expansions, since competing browsers (Chrome, Opera in particular) have gotten. How to distinguish yourself in this area? We launched a new Extension Manager, which should enhance their adoption by users. We will also launch in the coming weeks, a development kit that will simplify the development of extensions and put them within reach of web developers.
In short, those who can write a Web page with the javascript will make a Firefox extension. With these two aspects, I think Firefox will remain as leader of the customization of the browser. For us, the true development platform is the Web. Are not asked to make specific applications to Firefox, we are not in the context of an "App Store" closed.
Today developing for mobile is a nightmare because of the variety of formats iPhone, iPad, and a myriad of Android phones, which have a different resolution ... To address these application stores closed, we have a draft "Open Web App Store", a standard for the application stores, which would allow everyone to freely create.
There are qualities in these online stores, whether the discovery of applications, but also their monetization. I think it's important to have an alternative model to fee-based advertising. As a user, I much prefer to pay with hard cash, I can count, rather than data on my private life, which I can not put a price tag.
You spoke of using the graphics card with Firefox 4, you mention a project application online ... Firefox Will it eventually replace an operating system? Mozilla is working there on an operating system (OS)? The answer is no. OS is a very complicated design. There are many relationships to manage the various components, the issue of driver software, etc..
With the Open WebApp Store, rather it tackles the problem "up", starting applications, rather than the electronic layer. At the same time, the browser plunges deeper and deeper, will "touch the metal. Mobile example, Firefox is able to play with the accelerometer. Browsers such as Opera are a small market share in PCs, but have been able to invest smartphones from Apple and Google Android.
Why Firefox 4 is still very present on mobile? The market today is Android, which grows faster than the operating system from Apple. Android is open enough that we can develop natively. Opera Mini is now on Android, but it is based on a client-server and is not strictly speaking a real browser, the final version of Opera Mobile is also still out on Android.
On platforms where we can not offer a "real" Firefox as Windows 7 Phone and BlackBerry, we're going to do a synchronization service, like the iPhone. According to several studies, sales of tablets will considerably increase, but Apple will remain ultradominant for several years in the industry.
Is this a hindrance to the expansion of Firefox? For now, we already have a version of Firefox running on the shelves, but we are also stuck on the iPad on the iPhone, with Apple's development rules. We are ready, but there is little we can do for the adoption of Android on the shelves.
You announced in late January, the output of a service, allowing better control of targeted advertising. Google and Microsoft have announced similar measures. Do you think the battle of the browsers will also play in the field of personal data? This device may not seem much, but could eventually play an important role.
Firefox 4 implements an option "do not track", which indicates that the visited site is not to be tracked. But while governments are concerned about protecting privacy, and that advertisers are afraid to see happen regulation, the principle of "do not track" is a way to start the debate.
But there are still many things to do. Even if the system works, I do not think we should be all the time in fashion "do not track". On the one hand, it is fear of being tracked, but the customization is very important for the Web. I often take the Facebook example: if the network was not personalized, it would have no interest, 600 million people exchanging banalities.
But the fact that this custom is that this is a hundred friends who exchange banalities that becomes interesting. The concern is that the user does not have a slider to control the personalization. He knows that in any case, it is tracked and has no choice. Or he uses Firefox extensions like Adblock Plus or BetterPrivacy, which break some sites, because there are more cookies, but there is no additional warranty on the traces.
What we want is that depending on the site, users can adjust a slider, decide that what they want customization, and on what they do not want to be tracked. Do you think the adoption of new browsers will promote the development of new Web standard, HTML 5? Where we need Flash in the late 1990s to do creative things now that we start to have audio, 3D and video natively, the situation is changed.
When people see the potential of HTML 5, the request will come about naturally. Internet Explorer 9 has made enormous efforts, but in terms of effort for the adoption of HTML 5 is still the bottom of the class. However, users of Windows XP will also be capable of HTML 5, with Firefox. Your partnership with Google, which places the default search engine in Firefox, in exchange for a fee, expires at the end of this year.
How do you envision the future of this agreement? The contract expires, but it has always been renewed, and it should not be any change from this point of view.
This explains many decisions that might seem irrational if you stay in a traditional business, which is listed more. What we want is to have a seat at the table, be able to generate debate and to play the market to improve the Web. We consider the Web as a common good that must be protected.
And market share is a way to influence the market. We are not in a context of domination of the sector: if we end up with a four-browser market with relatively equal, that we would because we would always say. We suspect that below a certain level, 25-30% less than our current, we would lose weight on the market.
Google has released version 10 of Chrome and comes with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. How does your latest browser is she equipped to face off these competitors? Firefox 4 is a vast improvement over previous versions. A giant leap has been made in terms of speed: whether the loading of pages, the browser itself or the user profile.
To increase speed, we use a test program, open to volunteers who proposes to have a Firefox with software sensors, and provides insight into how the Internet uses the browser. This lets you know which part of its actions take more time to see how we can reduce the time. If thirty tabs open, we will first open the first load and the other in the background.
Objectively, it takes longer to download, but the perception of the user that the tab is needed is operational immediately. In total, there are hundreds of tips on optimizing the speed. We also optimized the javascript engine of the browser to display animation-rich Web sites. Finally, we rely on hardware acceleration, using the computer's graphics processor.
The computer has two processors, the central processor (CPU) processor and graphics card (GPU). So far, the GPU was not used for navigation, because it is a very particular processor. Depending on the operating system on Mac, Linux or Windows, you do not delegate the same things, but it happens for example to delegate certain functions such as anti-aliasing, which smooths fonts.
Chrome and Internet Explorer are also banking on speed, while Firefox users often complain about delays. How do you speed up Firefox? There is a chasm between older generations and modern browsers. In the light of a SunSpider test as example, we see very significant progress versions 3.0 through 3.5, 3.6 of Firefox, then in version 4.
But we also find that the latest versions of Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer are in the same court. To play on the browser market, it must be fast. But this is not enough. Today, in terms of speed, we fight over milliseconds, and changes are not visible to users. The battle is therefore particularly at the interface and usability? The more buttons, it is less clear to the user.
There is a real cost ergonomic add an additional button. With our software sensors, we know what buttons are used by the testers. The button "back" is for example widely used, which is not the case of a button referring to the RSS feed. Therefore we propose a new version 4 user interface, both simple and customizable.
Firefox has long been distinguished from other browsers with its expansions, since competing browsers (Chrome, Opera in particular) have gotten. How to distinguish yourself in this area? We launched a new Extension Manager, which should enhance their adoption by users. We will also launch in the coming weeks, a development kit that will simplify the development of extensions and put them within reach of web developers.
In short, those who can write a Web page with the javascript will make a Firefox extension. With these two aspects, I think Firefox will remain as leader of the customization of the browser. For us, the true development platform is the Web. Are not asked to make specific applications to Firefox, we are not in the context of an "App Store" closed.
Today developing for mobile is a nightmare because of the variety of formats iPhone, iPad, and a myriad of Android phones, which have a different resolution ... To address these application stores closed, we have a draft "Open Web App Store", a standard for the application stores, which would allow everyone to freely create.
There are qualities in these online stores, whether the discovery of applications, but also their monetization. I think it's important to have an alternative model to fee-based advertising. As a user, I much prefer to pay with hard cash, I can count, rather than data on my private life, which I can not put a price tag.
You spoke of using the graphics card with Firefox 4, you mention a project application online ... Firefox Will it eventually replace an operating system? Mozilla is working there on an operating system (OS)? The answer is no. OS is a very complicated design. There are many relationships to manage the various components, the issue of driver software, etc..
With the Open WebApp Store, rather it tackles the problem "up", starting applications, rather than the electronic layer. At the same time, the browser plunges deeper and deeper, will "touch the metal. Mobile example, Firefox is able to play with the accelerometer. Browsers such as Opera are a small market share in PCs, but have been able to invest smartphones from Apple and Google Android.
Why Firefox 4 is still very present on mobile? The market today is Android, which grows faster than the operating system from Apple. Android is open enough that we can develop natively. Opera Mini is now on Android, but it is based on a client-server and is not strictly speaking a real browser, the final version of Opera Mobile is also still out on Android.
On platforms where we can not offer a "real" Firefox as Windows 7 Phone and BlackBerry, we're going to do a synchronization service, like the iPhone. According to several studies, sales of tablets will considerably increase, but Apple will remain ultradominant for several years in the industry.
Is this a hindrance to the expansion of Firefox? For now, we already have a version of Firefox running on the shelves, but we are also stuck on the iPad on the iPhone, with Apple's development rules. We are ready, but there is little we can do for the adoption of Android on the shelves.
You announced in late January, the output of a service, allowing better control of targeted advertising. Google and Microsoft have announced similar measures. Do you think the battle of the browsers will also play in the field of personal data? This device may not seem much, but could eventually play an important role.
Firefox 4 implements an option "do not track", which indicates that the visited site is not to be tracked. But while governments are concerned about protecting privacy, and that advertisers are afraid to see happen regulation, the principle of "do not track" is a way to start the debate.
But there are still many things to do. Even if the system works, I do not think we should be all the time in fashion "do not track". On the one hand, it is fear of being tracked, but the customization is very important for the Web. I often take the Facebook example: if the network was not personalized, it would have no interest, 600 million people exchanging banalities.
But the fact that this custom is that this is a hundred friends who exchange banalities that becomes interesting. The concern is that the user does not have a slider to control the personalization. He knows that in any case, it is tracked and has no choice. Or he uses Firefox extensions like Adblock Plus or BetterPrivacy, which break some sites, because there are more cookies, but there is no additional warranty on the traces.
What we want is that depending on the site, users can adjust a slider, decide that what they want customization, and on what they do not want to be tracked. Do you think the adoption of new browsers will promote the development of new Web standard, HTML 5? Where we need Flash in the late 1990s to do creative things now that we start to have audio, 3D and video natively, the situation is changed.
When people see the potential of HTML 5, the request will come about naturally. Internet Explorer 9 has made enormous efforts, but in terms of effort for the adoption of HTML 5 is still the bottom of the class. However, users of Windows XP will also be capable of HTML 5, with Firefox. Your partnership with Google, which places the default search engine in Firefox, in exchange for a fee, expires at the end of this year.
How do you envision the future of this agreement? The contract expires, but it has always been renewed, and it should not be any change from this point of view.
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