I think Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and even Opera should all thank Mozilla and Firefox for continuing to push the bar for innovative browsing. It doesn’t matter who had what feature first.  The thing that does matter is that with all the most recent browser innovations, like the search box or tabbed browsing – Firefox made it cool and useful to do so.

What Mozilla needs to do is find out what the next best feature is going to be.  What can they do that the other browsers can’t?

One more important feature to Firefox’s success is the huge fan base that Mozilla has built. Don’t write Firefox out of the browser wars just yet. I have a feeling that Mozilla will see to it that they stay competitive out there. The browser competition is good for all of us because it means we will get better web browsing experiences – no mater which browser we use.

There is no doubt that both Microsoft and Firefox must be worried about Google’s Chrome browser.  This odd team up only confirms there is a major worry that Google might get a little too powerful.  It will be interesting to watch and see though how this effects Firefox’s default search in the future.  You can only get the Bing powered Firefox on a specific website, and Google is still the default search engine on the version you get from the Mozilla website.

The current Google/Firefox contract runs out in November – so the guys behind Firefox could be using this special version of Firefox to test the waters and see how the public reaction is.  If anything, you can always change your default search engine in Firefox so for knowledgeable users this might be a lot of fuss about nothing.

Mozilla is not out to make money or to have a stake in whatever gets developed there.  All code that is written in the four week period must be open sourced. If you are able to really develop something cool and worth of investing money in, Mozilla may also add additional funding and resources to the project too. 

Overall, Web FWD looks like Mozilla’s offer to the Internet to just make it better – plain and simple.  They want innovative people with amazing ideas to step forward and work with them to bring their ideas to life.  To learn more about the project, be sure to check out webfwd.org.

Going by the official Firefox 4 download stats, it appears in the first 24 hours Firefox 4 was available it was downloaded over 5,000,000 times.  That is pretty impressive.

Leave your thoughts on what you think about Firefox 4 in the comments or join the discussion on the Firefox Facts Facebook Fan Page!

Firefox 4 has suffered some setbacks as far as an official launch goes, but I think the public at large will be happy with the fact that they took a little ‘bit of extra time to work all the major bugs out.  Firefox 4 will also mark the last big release cycle Mozilla will do with the browser, so we may not have long drawn out countdowns any longer.  The reason for this is that the Mozilla team is opting for smaller and quicker releases, such as Google Chrome and other browsers like it have been doing.

When Firefox 3 came out, it had a record setting 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, back in 2008.  Will Firefox 4 be able to come close to that number? I guess we will see tomorrow!

* – image above from the Mozilla Firefox 4 t-shirt design contest.

In addition to the interactive demos the website delivers to you, you can also learn more about how each demo works and what technology is used to make it happen. The man navigation of the website divides the demos between HTML5, Design, Video and WEBGL.  Hopefully more demos will be added soon!

As a bonus, if you want to see more great demonstrations of what HTML, CSS and JavaScript can do – head on over to the Mozilla Demo Studio. 

If you are using the new Firefox 4 release candidate, then this is a website you should definitely check out.  Take a trip to Mozilla’s Web O’ Wonder and let me know what your favorite demo was.

For users, you will have a handful of applications you can install directly into the browser – to see what this experience is going to be like once it is a little more fleshed out.  Currently there are only about 17 or so apps to try, but I am sure it will be expanded in the near future.

For developers, I would suggest you check out the Mozilla Labs details on some of the backend and exciting news that has been released as of late.

Check out the open web apps Mozilla has released thus far and let me know what type of web apps you’d like to see in the future.

In these 12 betas that have been released for Firefox 4, the Mozilla team has squashed more than 7,000 bugs.  I would say that is a pretty successful (but rather long) development cycle. Here is a little more about the process from the Mozilla Blog:

We are working closely with the community of add-on developers to ensure their Firefox Add-ons are ready to customize the features, look and functionality of Firefox 4 Beta. We couldn’t build Firefox 4 Beta without the help of our millions of beta testers and their feedback, which we welcome as we work to deliver an awesome experience to the more than 400 million Firefox users worldwide.

So, when will Firefox 4 finally be released? I’d say sometime in March is most likely.  To lean more about Firefox 4 – Beta 12, be sure to check out the release notes from Mozilla.com.

Well, to make a long legal story short – the FCC told all the browser brands out there that they need to come up with a way for users to opt out of being tracked for advertising reasons. So, of course, each browser is now pitching their own version of how to get this task done. 

This is how Firefox’s Do Not Track feature should work:

• Firefox user enables Do Not Track option in the browser
• The user’s browser sends the Do Not Track header to a commercial website
• The commercial website provides the content of the website
• Third-party advertisers also get the Do Not Track header and then display anonymous ads rather than ones targeted at the individual

Sure, it is nice to have that extra option for more privacy if you want it – but there are a lot of factors that have to agree with this system in order for it to work.  In a world of rainbows and kittens this might work, however in the real world I am fearful that it is doomed. 

Why do I feel like Do Not Track is not going to be successful?

• How are you going to regulate it? If somebody fails to put the header info on their website, will there be a government raid of their computers? What about foreign websites?
• To work, you need the user, the website and the advertiser to fall in line.  Seems like it is going to be hard to persuade them to change their websites so their advertising is less useful.

For more information on Do Not Track, I would recommend checking out the FAQ on it via the Mozilla Wiki.  Let me know how you feel about it.  Are you excited to see it put in place or do you think it is a waste of time?

While Prism might be getting the boot though, the idea behind it still lives on.

The Chromeless Browser is one of those projects that might be the next best thing after Prism. The idea behind it is to remove the current browser interface we know and love and replace it with a flexible platform.  That, in turn, would allow for the creation of new browser interfaces using standard web technologies.

It would seem that Mozilla thinks the general conversation of the web has moved beyond wanting online apps as desktop apps. If you look at the big picture, this makes sense – because for something like Prism to be successful, the modern web browser must die.  With Mozilla facing more competition these days than they did back in 2007 when Prism was launched – I can understand the thoughts behind retiring the Prism project.

Go check out the Mozilla Labs post yourself, and let me know what you think.  Will you miss Prism, or had you forgotten it even existed?