Can Mozilla save us & the web from the trunk? Again?

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At LeWeb last week I asked Mitchell Baker, chairperson for Mozilla, whether she can save the web. Again. The talk is now up now and at about 3:15 into the interview she showed off a really compelling HTML 5 demo.

But while she put a brave face forward, Mozilla is seeing competition it’s never seen in its short life (and so is the web). Google Chrome is taking market share on one side. New social browsers like RockMelt and Flock are ready to satisfy a new customer need. But the real attacks are from mobile and iPads, which either don’t allow Firefox to run, or make it hard for people to use alternative browsers to their own built-in web.

I laid out how this new future does have dangers. So, now, it’s up to us.

Is there a future for the Web? For Mozilla? Or are we all going to crawl into Steve Jobs (or Steve Ballmer’s, or Eric Schmidt’s trunks?)

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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7 thoughts on “Can Mozilla save us & the web from the trunk? Again?”

  1. “Google Chrome is taking market share on one side. New social browsers like RockMelt and Flock are ready to satisfy a new customer need.”

    Chrome yes, Rockmelt and Flock no. Look at your own Google Analytics on the visitors tab and find a single user that is on Rockmelt or Flock. Zero. They are both huge multi-million dollar disappointments to date. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t turn around as SeaMonkey did.

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  3. Chrome is different from Apple. It is backed by an open source project i.e. Chromium which itself is based on Webkit a yet another open source software. It’s much like an open source software wrapped in a proprietary suit.

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  4. I think Mozilla is the best that can display most websites and offer page zoom and keyboard shortcuts, while others can only display websites optimizes for mobile devices. So, I think they will surely find solution for any further attacks. However, I think these attacks by hackers should be there to master the program! Loses for these attacks is a different story though;)

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  5. From a consumer perspective, I don’t mind crawling into a trunk, as long as it’s a nice trunk.

    Safari mobile is a nice trunk. Maybe Google Chrome (the hardware device) will be a good trunk.

    If the trunk starts getting stinky, we’ll crawl out. Consumers control the products.

    There’s nothing to worry about.

    Unless you’re a company.

    Which I’m not.

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  6. What’s this save the web rubbish? It’s just a web browser. IE9 and Opera 11 coming along rather well, with Maxthon and Avant front-ends grabbing their large share of converts. Welcome Firefox as much as anyone, but tons of other lesser-known choices out there…OmniWeb for example.

    PS – RockMelt is just a Chromium bad-redcode with Twitter and Facebook spywareish sidebars.

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