Mozilla Blog

Revisiting why hyperlinks are blue

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:46:23 +0200

Why we need to revisit the origin of blue hyperlink

While musing over my recently published article, Why are hyperlinks blue, I was left feeling a bit blue myself. Yes, it could have been the fact that I was evacuated and Hurricane Ida was destroying my home, I’ll admit. Besides that, I was also bothered by the fact that even though I was able to determine that Mosaic was indeed the first browser to use blue hyperlinks, I was not much closer to determining why the hyperlinks themselves were blue.

Black hyperlinks had been the standard for many years, but why the sudden shift to blue? One can assume that it is because RGB phosphorescent monitors were becoming more readily available in comparison to monotone phosphorescent monitors that could only produce one color. Okay then, with a palette of colors to choose from, why blue? Why not green? Microsoft 3.1 had used green for hyperlinks. Surely there must have been something to support or inspire Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina on April 12, 1993 to make the hyperlinks blue, but what was it?

I simply didn’t know, so I published the article anyway and hoped the internet would do as it always does: thrill in pointing out when someone is wrong, in the hope that someone would know the true answer.

I published the first article, a hurricane destroyed my home, and now two months later I’m once again sitting in my now gutted home with the miracle of the internet once again restored, and I’m back on the case.

Sifting for the golden nugget

I found myself enjoying my morning coffee, reading through hate mail from my first article, as one does. I sifted through this dung heap as a prospector pans for gold, scanning for the faintest hint of gold to help me continue my journey to the true origin of the blue hyperlink.

Don Hopkins, or a commenter who goes by the same name, knew the answer, and pointed me towards Ben Shneiderman. In short, it is Prof. Ben Shneiderman whom we can thank for the modern blue hyperlink. At the time, however, I didn’t yet know this. I found the professor online, and contacted him, and went about my day. He so kindly reached out to me, and as he spoke, it was an epiphany – all of these disassociated pieces of applications, history and anecdotes suddenly fit together like a marvelous great puzzle.

Below is the timeline based on our conversation, the documentation Prof. Shneiderman provided to me, and the information I had already gathered in my previous research. I hope that this all together can help prove a direct link between the work Ben Shneiderman and his graduate students were doing at the University of Maryland in the mid to late 1980s and the blue hyperlink found in Mosaic in 1993.

I’m a cyan fan

1985 – University of Maryland: Human-Computer Interaction Lab

Ben Shneiderman developed the highlighted selectable light blue link, which was implemented by graduate student Dan Ostroff. In doing so, they, as well as other students, tested many versions in controlled experiments.

“Red highlighting made the links more visible, but reduced the user’s capacity to read and retain the content of the text… blue was visible, on both white and black backgrounds and didn’t interfere with retention,” Shneiderman shared with me.

1982 – HyperTIES

Created in 1982, HyperTIES was an early hypertext authoring system, made commercial available by Cognetics Corporation. After research concluded at the University of Maryland, blue links were then built into HyperTIES. This is the first instance of a blue hyperlink.

April 1986 – Communications of the ACM

Koved and Shneiderman published their researcher in Communications of the AMC, an industry magazine.

Koved, L., & Shneiderman, B. (1986). Embedded menus: Selecting items in context. Communications of the ACM, 29(4), 312-318.

November 13-15, 1987 – The Hypertext Conference, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

At the first Hypertext conference, Ben Shniderman presented in a panel session, “User interface design for the Hyperties electronic encyclopedia.” Of the conference, Professor Shniderman wrote:

“We conducted approximately 20 empirical studies of many design variables which were reported at the Hypertext 1987 conference and in array of journals and books. Issues such as the use of light blue highlighting as the default color for links, the inclusion of a history stack, easy access to a BACK button, article length, and global string search were all studied empirically.”

July 1988 – Communications of the AMC

Ben Shneiderman’s team took on the project of producting a HyperTIES disk for the ACM called “Hypertext on Hypertext”, which contained the full text of eight papers. These papers were published in the July 1988 issue of Communications of the ACM.

The leap to Lee

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote Information Management: A Proposal, in which he discussed many topics. Of interest to the blue hyperlink, he does discuss the work being done at universities centered around human interface design, and a nod to commercial success of a product using hypertext:

“An increasing amount of work is being done into hypermedia research at universities and commercial research labs, and some commercial systems have resulted. There have been two conferences, Hypertext ’87 and ’88, and in Washington DC, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NST) hosted a workshop on standardisation in hypertext, a followup of which will occur during 1990.

The Communications of the ACM special issue on Hypertext contains many references to hypertext papers. A bibliography on hypertext is given in [NIST90], and a uucp newsgroup alt.hypertext exists. I do not, therefore, give a list here.

Much of the academic research is into the human interface side of browsing through a complex information space. Problems addressed are those of making navigation easy, and avoiding a feeling of being “lost in hyperspace”. Whilst the results of the research are interesting, many users at CERN will be accessing the system using primitive terminals, and so advanced window styles are not so important for us now.”

While still an assumption, it is a fair assumption that Tim Berners-Lee was aware of the blue highlight hyperlink color because he was aware of “research at universities”, “Hypertext ‘87”, and the “AMC special issue on Hypertext,” all instances where the blue highlight color research was presented. Burners-Lee did mention that the “results of the research are interesting.” It is also interesting to note that WWW, the browser he was creating at the time, did not use blue hyperlinks.

January 16-18, 1990 – Hypertext Standardization Workshop

Tim Berners-Lee, as well as many others, participated in the hypertext standardization workshop, yet there was no mention of the use of color to denote hypertext in the report. However, readability of hypertext was identified as a research objective in the workshop report (PDF).

“Measuring hypertext “readability.” … Hypertext extensions to readability metrics might include measures of the “goodness” of links based on similarity between linked units. Readability measures for alternative hypertext designs for the same text will go far toward making hypertext design an engineering discipline.” (Page 35)

August 1990 – Dynamic Characteristics of Hypertext

Following up on the workshop, I assume this is the resulting paper (PDF) to come out of the hypertext standardization workshop. Published by Richard Furuta & P. David Stotts, this paper argues that dynamic characteristics of hypertext are required to achieve hypertext’s true purpose. In the excerpt below we can see the authors discuss color’s role in hypertex, and the foundations of active, visited and focused states:

“Dynamic representation of context may also be useful. For example, consider the representation of an anchor that changes over time. The anchor may be represented by a highlighted region whose color, size, or location changes over time to draw more attention to itself. Alternatively, the anchor might be represented by a small animation.” – Page 2

Blue’s clues

In the late 1980s, industry workshops and conferences brought people together to share ideas, discuss trends and standardize ways of making the web work. What are the results of this sharing of knowledge? Well, hypertext starts to turn blue. At the time, hypertext was more than what we now know as hyperlinks, but also included user interface elements such as the close icon, navigating back and forth between sections, and printing. As we see above, there were arguments from industry leaders to make hypertext dynamic, so active states must be included as well.

October 21, 1991 – Macintosh System 7

Apple began adding hints of blue to icons and text background when selected.

April 6, 1992 – Windows 3.1

Microsoft began using blue for interactions to “highlight” text when selected.

1992 – HyperTIES

Created for the HP LaserJet4 User Manual, even using HyperTies creators began using the darker blue hyperlink on a button as well as the light blue (cyan) for hyperlinks.

December 1992 – Framaker 3.0 (Windows Version)

Framemaker was created for making and maintaining large documents, and is also the first instance I uncovered of the dark blue hyperlink. In 1992, not all versions were in color, but Framemaker v3.0 for Windows did support color monitors. Huge shoutout to Dan Connolly for letting me know about this application, and to a colleague of mine for opening it in an emulator to get this screenshot.

On Wednesdays we wear blue

So what inspired the blue links in Mosaic; whose blue hyperlinks went on to set the industry standard we are following even today? Well, we do know that Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina were inspired by ViolaWWW and decided to create Mosaic after seeing it. Perhaps they were aware of the same inspirations and research as Tim Berners-Lee, or they simply saw the blue trend happening in their industry.

In truth, it doesn’t matter what specific application or article inspired them. The decision to make hyperlinks blue in Mosaic, and the reason why we see it happening in Cello at the same time, is that by 1993, blue was becoming the industry standard for interaction for hypertext. It had been eight years since the initial research on blue as a hyperlink color. This data had been shared, presented at conferences, and printed in industry magazines. Hypertext went on to be discussed in multiple forums. Diverse teams’ research came to the same conclusion – color mattered. If it didn’t inspire Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina directly, it inspired those around them and those in their industry. We can see evidence of this inspiration by looking at the work of Macintosh, Microsoft, HyperTIES, LaserJet, Framemaker and Cello. These companies and products created work before or during Mosaic, and all use blue hyperlinks, selection colors or blue typography. Though this was still a time of experimentation, the visual language of blue for interaction was beginning to be defined years before Mosaic was created.

I love knowing that the original blue was chosen with care and through testing, that this research and knowledge was shared through a community, and that the spirit of open source sharing still lives on here at Mozilla. I am very thankful to the developer community for their comments which led me to the right people so that I could find the answer to this question which has long plagued my mind and the minds of countless others. I hope that we continue to choose to use the internet as a place for good and communication, and that we use blue hyperlinks to connect with and help one another.

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New Year, New Privacy Protection for Firefox Focus on Android

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:16:13 +0200

Have you ever signed up for a contest to win a big screen TV or a vacation to an exotic location? Or have you joined a big retailer loyalty program so you can save money? If you answered yes to either of these questions you may be exchanging your name, home address, email address, phone number and sometimes even your birthdate to companies who are building your profile with the information you freely provide. Companies use those profiles to help them make ads that are targeted at convincing you to purchase, like resurfacing an item you were shopping for. When you go online, there are similar tactics that work behind the scenes to gather information about you and your browsing behavior, and track you when you go from site to site.

Mozilla has been leading the industry in privacy protections by putting our users first. Last year, we introduced one of our strongest privacy protections to date, Total Cookie Protection, to combat cross-site tracking, and we’re bringing it to Firefox Focus on Android, our simple, privacy by default companion app. Firefox Focus on Android will be the first Firefox mobile browser to have Total Cookie Protection. This will help mitigate the cross-site tracking where companies collect information about you like the sites you visit every day or the products you are searching for.

Total Cookie Protection works by maintaining a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit

What is Total Cookie Protection

Total Cookie Protection stops cookies from tracking you around the web. Total Cookie Protection joins our suite of privacy protections called ETP (Enhanced Tracking Protection). In combining Total Cookie Protection with supercookie protections, you can ease your worries about companies tracking you from site to site by using Firefox Focus on Android. Total Cookie Protection works by maintaining a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit. Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser, Firefox Focus confines that cookie to the cookie jar assigned to that website. This way, no other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you. Now, you can say good-bye to those annoying ads following you and reduce the amount of information that companies gather about you whenever you go online.

Plus, we added SmartBlock to keep websites working

In December, we also added SmartBlock and other fixes which help keep websites running smoothly. These features work around breakage with websites, while those sites investigate proper fixes. SmartBlock helps fix issues related to Total Cookie Protection and other pro-privacy measures.

For instance, some websites contain maps hosted on other servers. If the expected cookies are not being sent to those servers, because Total Cookie Protection is active, then the maps will fail to appear. With a simple work-around we can allow these maps to appear, without disabling any pro-privacy measures, while still giving sites time to come up with a proper fix.

And for users who opt into stricter tracking protection, SmartBlock also provides replacements for commonly-blocked trackers, keeping web sites working. These replacements are bundled with Firefox, minimizing the risk of any tracking taking place.

Get the fast, private browser, Firefox Focus today.

For more on Firefox:

Introducing Firefox Relay Premium, allowing more aliases to protect your identity from spammers

Firefox’s Private Browsing mode upleveled for you

Do you need a VPN at home? Here are 5 reasons you might.

The post New Year, New Privacy Protection for Firefox Focus on Android appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Digital Checklist: How to Start 2022 Right

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 20:00:53 +0200

Lindsey Shepard, CMO, Mozilla

For most, the New Year marks a time to reflect, reset and re-prioritize. While learning a new language, creating a budget or starting up a new hobby have become staples of our New Years’ Resolutions, as our lives increasingly shift online, it’s important we also use this opportunity to reassess our digital habits. Whether you received a new device this holiday season or just want to make sure you’re protecting yourself online, there’s no better time to partake in some New Year's cyber cleaning. 

To get 2022 off to a strong start, here's a helpful and easy checklist to help you tidy up your browsing, tighten your security and ensure your online health isn’t left at the wayside.

Tidy your browser

With most of us browsing the web daily, it’s inevitable that our searches begin to add up and clutter our browsing experience. To start the New Year off right, give your browser a deep clean to ensure it’s running smoothly for the months ahead so you have an organized space to access, consume and save all of the web’s great content.

Start off by clearing your browser history, which will not only help your devices run faster but will prevent websites from tracking your information (more on that later). Consider also enabling Private Browsing, which temporarily halts data from being stored, or changing your browser to automatically delete your history when you quit the application.

It’s also a good idea to take a look at your bookmarks and extensions. Use this opportunity to go through your bookmarks and delete pages you no longer need and consider using Firefox’s tagging feature, which allows you to categorize bookmarks with keywords to make them easily searchable. And while extensions like adblockers and translators can be enormously useful, a quick review of these tools to ensure everything is up-to-date and still helpful will go a long way in keeping your browser moving fast and uncluttered.

Unsubscribe from junk mail

It’s easy for junk mail to pile up throughout the year — especially as more and more sites require us to share our contact details to gain access. Just as you’ve resolved to clean out your closet every January, use this opportunity to actually scrub your inbox so it is organized and manageable in the year to come.

Many of us fall prey to handing over our personal information to e-commerce sites in return for discounts, but in the process, open our inbox to a flood of unsolicited emails. To keep scoring these deals while maintaining a clean inbox, use Firefox Relay, which provides email aliases to use in these situations while protecting your real address.

While it may seem like a herculean task to unsubscribe from each individual sender, there are tools that can automate the process for you, like Clean Email, which provides a list of all your subscription emails and allows you to unsubscribe easily. Spam comes in many different forms, so if it’s telemarketers’ calls that are ringing your phone off the hook, try removing your information from major data brokers’ databases — such as this one — to reduce the likelihood of your number ending up in spammers’ hands.

For emails you do actually want to read, but just can’t keep up with — like content-dense newsletters or Substacks — consider using Pocket to save your must-read articles for later while giving your inbox a break.

Get serious about privacy

The longer you’ve lived online, the bigger your digital footprint, and with that comes greater privacy concerns. Ever been served an ad that was eerily similar to something you just searched? It was likely from a company that tracks your every move online. While the world of cookies can be confusing, and sometimes it feels easier to opt-in than figure out how to opt-out, consider incorporating a few new habits into your browsing routine to protect your data in 2022.

To increase your privacy, you can:

Use alternatives to big tech platforms like Google, Facebook and Amazon, which are known to store large amounts of user data. Instead of using Google Chrome as your browser, try a more privacy-focused option like Firefox.

Clear your cookies, which erases all information saved in your browser and makes it harder for sites from tracking you long after you’ve visited them.

Consider exploring a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPNs, such as Mozilla VPN, hide your IP address, protecting your identity and location. They also encrypt the traffic between you and your VPN provider for an additional layer of privacy.

Limit how much social platforms can track your activity by unlinking your social profiles from accounts on other sites, and adding extensions like Facebook Container to your browser, which prevent platforms from tracking you across the web.

PRO TIP: Sick of having to always click, “Accept cookies”? Try choosing a browser that has strong privacy protections like Enhanced Tracking Protection and Total Cookie Protection in Firefox.

Update and strengthen your passwords

This one is so important, it deserved its own heading. Much of what we can do to protect ourselves online boils down to our passwords, which hold the key to our personal information online. While good password practices do require some discipline, it’s worth the inconvenience to keep your online life infinitely safer. Take these straightforward steps to protect yours in 2022.

For starters, make sure you use a different password for every account, so if one site is breached, the attacker cannot access other accounts. While doing so, update your passwords to be as strong as possible — the longer and harder the phrase is to guess, the more difficult it is to steal. Try combining two or more unrelated words, adding numbers and symbols and making it longer than 8 characters.

Beyond passwords, try to avoid using security questions whenever possible. Since they’re often based on personal information like where you grew up or what your first car was, they’re essentially additional, less secure passwords. If you don’t have that option, avoid answering them accurately and instead opt for answers that are long and random, just like your passwords.

PRO TIP: Not sure what a good password is? Many browsers, including Firefox, have integrated Password Managers that can generate strong password options, as well as store usernames and passwords and automatically fill them in when you visit sites.

Protect your health and new devices

As we spend more time on our devices, especially during the pandemic and work-from-home, it can be easy to forget the toll that too much screen time takes on our physical health.

In 2022, fight eye strain by switching your phones and computers to dark or yellow mode, which both cut screen glare to reduce visual fatigue. The blue light emitted from screens can wreak havoc on your sleep cycle, as it’s been found to suppress the body’s release of melatonin. Combat this by investing in a pair of blue light glasses, or installing a blue light extension on your browser.

More and more research has also found that too much time on social media can negatively impact your mental health. As you reset for the New Year, consider using tools to limit your time on these sites, such as Impulse Blocker, an extension that allows you to limit access to distracting sites.

2022, here we come!

As the internet expands and becomes more ingrained in our lives, it’s crucial we take this moment to assess our digital habits and ensure we are protected online in the year to come. However, it’s important we remember why we do this — not just to defend ourselves from potential online threats to our privacy and security, but so that we can keep enjoying all the infinite goodies the web has to offer. The internet is an amazing place with so much to explore in 2022, so let’s make sure we are prepared to make the most of it!

The post Digital Checklist: How to Start 2022 Right appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Mozilla partners with The Markup to launch Rally study into Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0200

Browser maker Mozilla today announced a partnership with The Markup, the non-profit newsroom that investigates how technology is reshaping society, on a research project to provide insights into and data about a space that’s opaque to policymakers, researchers and users themselves. By joining Mozilla and The Markup’s “Facebook Pixel Hunt” in Firefox, people can help Rally and The Markup unravel how Facebook’s tracking infrastructure massively collects data about people online – data that is used to target ads, tailor content recommendations and spread misinformation – all by simply browsing the web.

The Markup is the newest partner for Rally, the privacy-first data-sharing platform that was created by Mozilla in 2021 to take back control from platforms that are not transparent about how they use people’s data and make it very difficult for independent outside research to take place. Rally is a novel way for people to help answer systemic questions by contributing their own browsing behavior data, putting it to work as part of a collective effort to solve societal problems that start online and that we have not been able to investigate this way before.

Using tools provided by Rally, the two organizations will research how Facebook tracks people across the web through its Facebook pixel-powered ad network and shine a light on what Facebook knows about their online life. By opting into “The Facebook Pixel Hunt” study, Rally gives Firefox users the power to help answer questions like: What kind of data does the Facebook pixel collect? Which sites share this data? What can this data reveal about people? What other ways does Facebook track people? How widespread is Facebook’s tracking network?

Mozilla is excited to partner with The Markup. Cited by legislators to combat discriminatory tenant screening and mortgage lending, The Markup’s journalism has distinguished itself with its direct impact on people’s lives. The partnership of the two organizations brings together Rally’s technical skill and The Markup’s data-driven investigative journalism, exposing the problems of informational asymmetry on the internet and shedding light on systems of online surveillance used by companies like Facebook.

“A tool like Rally can bring the full force of communities of people joining together to provide insights into one of the most opaque parts of the internet that have such a dramatic impact on our individual lives and on society. This is a rare opportunity to lift the veil over Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices outside of the Facebook platforms.”
Ted Han, Rally Product Lead at Mozilla

Facebook has repeatedly slowed down efforts to bring transparency and to help independent third parties research and understand the mechanisms at play on its platforms: it shut down CrowdTangle, blocked ProPublica’s Ad Transparency tools, modified code to prevent The Markup’s Citizen Browser from collecting user-volunteered data and canceled NYU’s AdObserver researchers’ accounts.

“The Internet and the world cannot wait on platforms to do the right thing, especially when so much depends on it. This partnership seeks to lead the way in providing new and critical ways of illuminating the reality of the internet, led by the people who make it. This partnership comes at a time when the consequences of fragmented awareness have never been more stark.”
Ted Han, Rally Product Lead at Mozilla

“We’re thrilled to partner with Mozilla, which shares our commitment to a more transparent and trusted internet. Rally is an open invitation for the public to contribute to important research into some of today’s most pressing issues, and we’re excited to investigate wherever it leads.”
Julia Angwin, editor-in-chief and founder of The Markup

The Markup will be Rally’s first non-academic partner. Rally launched as a Firefox extension in 2021. It has supported a study in collaboration with Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy about news and misinformation about politics and COVID-19 across online services, and another ongoing study with the Stanford University Graduate School of Business on news consumption and the impact of ads.

Participate in “The Facebook Pixel Hunt”

Install Rally

The post Mozilla partners with The Markup to launch Rally study into Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Pocket & Texas Monthly Take You Inside The World of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders With New Partnership

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 01:15:21 +0200

Your favorite go-to resource to discover, save, and spend time with interesting reads, has gone to Texas. This December, Pocket has teamed up with Texas Monthly, bringing Pocket users weekly deep dives on every episode of America’s Girls, Texas Monthly’s fascinating new podcast about how the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders became international icons.

From the scandals over the squad’s uniforms and their bizarre rule book, to a look at how their fame has influenced pro sports teams over the past 50 years, each weekly collection brings Pocket users behind the scenes with curated reading lists by Texas Monthly writer-at-large and “America’s Girls” host, Sarah Hepola.

We caught up with Hepola—also a bestselling author to learn more about her inspiration for the show and her collections for Pocket.

As someone who lives in Texas, can you set the stage for us about the role the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders have locally and then also in your life–what sparked the inspiration for the 8-part series? How big of a deal are they and has this changed over time?

They were the wallpaper to my childhood. I was five in 1979, when the cheerleaders were in their own made-for-TV movie, a Faberge hair care commercial, and appeared on The Love Boat. My family had just moved to Dallas from Philadelphia. My mother wore clogs and no makeup, and I fell in love with these sparkly princesses that I saw on posters across town. A lot of Texas girls from that era grew up knotting their shirts at the rib cage and shaking their pom-poms. And you couldn’t walk into Sears (the Target of its time) without being bombarded by frisbees and sleeping bags and coloring books.

I went to college in Austin and later lived in New York, but I moved back to Dallas about ten years ago. One day I was in a parking lot staring up at a billboard at this blonde goddess in a blue and white uniform, and I was like: They’re still here? That’s when it occurred to me that I knew nothing about these women. I’d been staring at them for so many years, but I didn’t know their names, their backstories, anything. Of course I eventually learned that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were the start of modern professional cheerleading, and I began watching their CMT reality show, which was weirdly addictive. Then in 2014, cheerleader law suits started rippling across the NFL over fair pay, sexual discrimination, body shaming. Teams started folding their squads. Whatever the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had started, it was being walked back. I was fascinated by this story, but I couldn’t get my hands around it. It was too shape-shifting and multi-dimensional for one article. And that’s why we did a podcast.

You’ve been a podcast guest many times before, but this is your first podcast “baby” Why did America’s Girls come to life via podcast? And how has it been different to host v. guest?

I was brainstorming with my editor at Texas Monthly, JK Nickell. The magazine had just entered the podcast space, with “Boomtown,” and the idea of connecting through the voice is deeply appealing to me. So I was throwing ideas out that reflected my work and life at the time—dating, singlehood, middle age—and he said, “What about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders?” Because he knew I’d been chewing on that story. I’d just listened to “Dolly Parton’s America,” and I loved how Jad Abumrad used Dolly’s life to tell a bigger cultural story. So the moment JK said “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” it’s like the screen I was staring at went 3D.

I adore being a guest on podcasts. I wish it paid. It’s so easy! But doing my own podcast has been much harder. I’m pretty hopelessly analog, so just figuring out how to work the audio equipment was a challenge, but then there’s a specific way you interview people, and then a specific way you write for podcasts. Overwhelming. Let me just say: I have a whole new respect for podcast hosts. And my producer Patrick Michels was a huge help.

Did anything surprise you in the process of putting this podcast together? Is the final story you are telling in this podcast the story you originally thought you would be telling?

I was surprised by how much fear a lot of the cheerleaders had about speaking to me at all. Especially the more recent cheerleaders. I very naively thought they’d welcome the spotlight, but that’s a tight sisterhood, and a fiercely protective brand, and there’s a deep-rooted suspicion of outsiders. But the women who did speak to me—I was surprised by how deeply we connected. All the things they were talking about—body image, finding the limits of their own talent, self-confidence, fair pay, hard work, being valued—I’ve struggled with that, too. I could have talked to them for days (and sometimes did).

I envisioned this project more as a social commentary, with the primary voices being historians and cultural critics, but eventually the women took center stage. As they should.

Over the last 15 years or so the presence of social media and the internet has expanded the reach of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and allowed more people access. How do you think this has impacted the actual women working as the cheerleaders?

What really changed the brand was the reality show, Making the Team. Now hard-core viewers knew their names and childhood sagas, and you can find fan pages where people are talking about whether they’ve gained weight or what kind of shoes they wear in a certain episode. It’s intense. I think social media presents its own problems, but the cheerleaders I spoke to were pretty good about keeping good boundaries there. I do think it’s harder to get away with stuff now as a cheerleader than it was in the Seventies. Back then, you could hang with a player at a bar and nobody would find out. Now it’s very easy to get busted—and fraternizing, of course, is against the rules.

What is your favorite “fun fact” about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders?

You get them for $5. (And you still can! I bought a pair.) I was always curious how they wore pantyhose with the low-cut booty shorts, but I learned they cut off the tops of the pantyhose, and the shorts are so tight they stay in place.

Podcasts continue to be such an engaging medium. How has the Pocket collection you’ve created for America’s Girls support your growing listenership and allow fans to go deeper into these stories?

Every episode we do feels like it could have been five times longer. There’s so much history packed into this. And the rabbit holes are endless! In episode four, we devote probably five minutes to the tale of Bubbles Cash, a burlesque dancer in Dallas who famously riveted the crowd at Texas Stadium during a 1967 Cowboys game, a story that often gets told as the origin tale of the cheerleaders. But setting aside that moment, Bubbles is fascinating: Married at 15, she went into stripping because she idolized Candy Barr, a famous stripper from Dallas she’d seen at the Texas Prison Rodeo. She became a B-movie actress and ran for governor. Don’t you want to know more?

How do the Pocket collections support the storytelling in your podcast? Is the content in your collection different somehow?

I think of the Pocket collection as hyperlinks for the podcast. It’s like: This is all really complicated, and we could go on for days, but we have to keep the narrative moving. However, if you want to delve later, please do. It’s deeply gratifying.

What articles and videos are in your Pocket waiting to be read/watched right now?

That Anne Helen Petersen story on the high cost of being single. The Rob Harvilla piece on the Spice Girls. The Jill Lepore story on whether society is coming apart.

At Pocket, we’re all about helping people carve out time and space to dig into the stories that matter. Where and when do you catch up on the long reads and podcast episodes you’re excited for?

I put on podcasts when I’m cleaning or gardening or walking or driving. And I like to curl up in bed on Sunday and read the stories that I’ve put aside. It’s such a lovely way to end/start the week. I feel prepared.

The post Pocket & Texas Monthly Take You Inside The World of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders With New Partnership appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

My best holiday shopping tip? Mozilla

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 00:30:00 +0200

It’s that time of year again — when all of the mail carriers have overflowing trucks, malls are miraculously busy and budgets are tight. Yes, it is holiday shopping time. This year more than 84% of Americans plan to buy holiday gifts with estimates that Americans will spend at least as much on gifts as last year — $789 billion on people’s present purchases alone. And as much as we love our family and friends, buying gifts for them can be just stressful. While Mozilla can’t make your impossible-to-shop-for dad any easier to shop for or fix the supply chain issues, we can help make the process of holiday shopping more enjoyable.

Hey, with your holiday shopping a bit easier, maybe you will have some extra time to gift yourself exactly what you want this holiday season.

1. Jumping back into holiday shopping with Firefox mobile

Just because we all of a sudden have to purchase gifts for what feels like everyone we’ve ever known, that doesn’t mean that we suddenly have more time in our day. So here we are, searching the internet for gifts while inline for our morning coffee, during those 5-minute breaks between meetings, or right before we fall asleep at night. Firefox understands that, and our app homepage lets you jump back to open tabs as well as sites you’ve pinned and bookmarked.

With holiday shopping you may want to pin things like:

The page comparing features of the latest phones you want to buy your family.
The complete Strategist holiday gift guide you feel will solve your gift-giving woes.
The webpage your significant other not so subtly sent your way.

How to pin a site: Tap the Settings menu (the three dots in the URL bar), then tap Add to top sites (Android) or Add to Shortcuts (iOS). To remove, rename or open a pin in a private tab, long-press to activate those options.

**2. Checking all gifts with our *Privacy Not Included holiday guide**

It is no secret that tech gifts are popular for the holidays — the U.S. alone is expected to spend $135 billion on hardware and tech services this season. The latest update of the *Privacy Not Included holiday buyer’s guide from the Mozilla Foundation includes research on 151 popular products. This allows you to make sure that the gift you are thinking about is not risking the privacy of your loved ones.

Or if you don’t know what tech gift is right yet, check out the Best Of category with the 22 products you can feel good about gifting.

3. Organizing all of your gift ideas in Pocket

If you are choosing between multiple gifts, or are not sure that you’ve found exactly the right gift for your partner yet, you can keep all of your ideas organized in your Pocket app. Anytime you come across a gift you think your partner may like, save it to Pocket, and add a tag to that link. You customize the tag with the name of your recipient or “gift ideas”. Whatever keeps you organized and going!

Pro Tip: Save things you think your family and friends will like all year long and reduce the need for frantic searches just a couple of weeks before. Just search for the right tag in your Pocket app and all of your ideas will be in one place.

How to add a Pocket tag from Firefox: Hit the “Save to Pocket” button in the top right corner of Firefox, then tag your page and Save it. Later, when you open your Pocket app, your Saves will be there, tagged and organized.

4. Avoiding shopping spam with Firefox Relay

The average American will spend $938 on holiday gifts this year (yes, you read that right), so any chance to save money is welcome. All of a sudden signing up for those annoying newsletters from every website ever sounds a bit more appealing if it will save you 10%-20% off everything. Feel free to sign up for all of the newsletters without compromising your personal email or spamming your main inbox with emails from e-commerce retailers you only shop at once or twice a year.

Firefox Relay is a free service available at relay.firefox.com where you’ll get five email aliases to use whenever you sign-up for an online account. If you need more than five email aliases you can sign up for Firefox Relay Premium. Relay Premium subscribers will receive one subdomain alias to create unlimited email aliases, the option to use your email aliases to reply to emails directly, and convenient customer support.

How it works:

5. Feeling good about using an indie company that puts people before profit as you shop

Small businesses depend on the holidays to hit their revenue goals, so while you shop indie this holiday season, you should do so with the indie browser. When you download Firefox, you’re choosing to support an independent tech company. Firefox is the only major browser backed by a non-profit fighting to give you more openness, transparency and control of your life online.

The post My best holiday shopping tip? Mozilla appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Year in Review: How we’re curating the web with you and our top Pocket features

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 16:06:09 +0200

All this year, we’ve been experimenting with features to help you discover articles and voices that are relevant to your interests, and better organize your lists so you can easily find the stories that fit your mood or your time available. We saw lots of users engaging with positive and meaningful content, which demonstrated to us that we were on the right path. Our annual Best of Pocket 2021 awards, which highlight the most-read and -shared stories this year, demonstrate the power of our Pocket community to curate a web that is worthy of time and attention. Today, we present the top Pocket features we worked on in 2021 that are making that possible.

Personalizing your new Home in Pocket

Historically, most of the content that people consume within Pocket starts with a save. You see a good story somewhere, save it to Pocket, and open the app later to read it. In the fall, we rolled out a Web-only beta launch of a fundamentally new experience within Pocket — a new “Home.” Currently available to users who log in to Pocket, Home is where you can find stories or sources that our content discovery team believes will be relevant to you. Plus, the more stories you save and the more you engage with Pocket, the better these recommendations will become. Unlike other recommendation sources, we always apply a human editorial layer to keep people from going down rabbit holes and ensuring high quality. In your new Home, we’ve added the following sections personalized for you:

Recommended reads, just for you – This section is based on your recent saves in the last six months so it’s aimed at bringing you the articles you saved and want to read more about.

Recent Saves – At the top of the new home page, there’s a section that shows your three recent saves so you can quickly access it. You’ll notice at the bottom of each of those recent saves we give you the option to show similar articles. For some articles, we have additional articles where you can dive deeper into that topic or theme.

In addition to these two new personalized features on the new Home in Pocket, we’re experimenting with showing you your top three most-saved topics and listing popular articles in each section. The topics include self improvement, career, business, tech, health and fitness, entertainment and more. You’ll also find Editors’ picks, which are curated by Pocket editors based on the most-saved and engaged with articles in Pocket, and a new section for our most-read Collections (more about Collections towards the end of this article).

We’ll be doing a lot to improve the Home experience in the coming months. We believe it will help you discover new things to read–right within Pocket. Here’s more on that:

Getting Pocket on Android organized for your high-quality reads

In the physical world, the act of organization is to help us strategically place things so we can easily get to them. In the kitchen, for example, we have the pots and pans close to the oven and the dishwasher right next to the sink. This year, we focused on creating features that help uncover the high-quality content you’ve already saved to your list in order to ultimately save you time, with new time-to-read filters and sorting options on our Android app. This month we’re releasing two new features that you can also find in our Android app: Viewed and Unviewed and Next and Previous. Here’s how these two new features will save you time:

Get you faster to content with Viewed/Unviewed articles: Now, you no longer need to guess which articles you’ve read once you’ve saved them. From My List, all unviewed articles will be in bold. Once you’ve viewed the article, it will no longer be bold. We’ve also added three buttons — share, archive, and additional actions (represented as three vertical dots) — so that after you’ve finished reading your article you can send it to a friend, save it in your favorites, categorize it by tag or simply delete it.

Moving forward with your Next article: From My List, once you’ve opened up an article, you’ll find the Next and Previous arrows at the bottom of your screen or when you scroll up. Tap the arrows to move you forward or backward within your list. These buttons help save you that unnecessary step of going back to My List.

Discover new voices and stories with our Pocket Collections

Over the past year, Pocket editors have partnered with subject-matter experts to curate hundreds of Pocket Collections, which allow users to explore and go deeper on topics that interest them in ways that algorithmic recommendations or results often don’t allow. Collections put the best of the web at users’ fingertips, on a wide variety of topics (How to start meditating. How to write (almost) anything. Managing Zoom brain. What’s worth reading about the climate report) by taking the guesswork out of trying to figure out and find what’s worth your time and attention.

You can now easily find all of our Collections on a dedicated tab and page, with new ones being published each week. (One of our most popular Collections even made our Most Read Articles in 2021: How to Talk to People You Disagree with.)

What’s ahead for 2022

Pocket has long been known as the go-to place to discover, save and spend time with great stories from around the web. As we look to the year ahead of us, we will continue to empower users to spend time with the stories that matters most to them and to help users discover the very best of the web.

The post Year in Review: How we’re curating the web with you and our top Pocket features appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Kristen Trubey, Mozilla’s New Chief People Officer

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 02:38:41 +0200

I am pleased to share that Kristen Trubey has joined Mozilla as our Chief People Officer. Kristen initially came to Mozilla in August in an interim capacity but she quickly settled in and made an immediate impact. Her expertise, experience and focus to create connections between company culture, employee experience, and business results proved to be exactly the kind of leadership we were looking for to lead our people teams.

As Chief People Officer, Kristen will be responsible for all areas of HR and Organizational Development at Mozilla Corporation with an overall focus on ensuring we’re building and growing a resilient, high impact global organization to support Mozilla’s next chapter.

“It was clear after my first days as interim CPO that Mozilla’s culture was one I would be lucky to be part of and months later that feeling has only grown,” said Trubey. “Mozilla’s core values and mission aren’t just slogans on a website, they are truly woven throughout every part of the company. I am excited to come on as a steward of that culture and to help scale an organization that promotes growth, inclusion, and excellence to help us reach our goals.”

Kristen comes to us most recently from Patreon, where she spent eight-months providing HR leadership and support. Prior to that, Kristen was Chief People Officer at Hearsay Systems, a mid-sized startup with offices around the world. She also spent more than five years at Netflix where she supported a variety of teams including a two year assignment in Amsterdam as the first HR leader in Europe as part of the company’s strategy to scale Netflix’s culture globally.

Kristen will continue to report to me and sit on the steering committee.

The post Kristen Trubey, Mozilla’s New Chief People Officer appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Pocket’s state-by-state guide to the most popular articles in 2021

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:43:33 +0200

We’re just going to say it: it feels a little bit weird to wrap up 2021 because this year feels like three years in one and an extension of 2020 simultaneously. At some point in the near future, 2020 and 2021 will be studied in history books. While we can’t predict what the history books will say, we can analyze what defined this year for us.

We do just that in Pocket’s Best of 2021 — the most-saved, -read and -shared articles by Pocket readers, spanning culture, science, tech and more.

As we analyzed the winning articles, we wondered what we might learn if we looked at the data state by state.

Setting aside the top story worldwide for 2021, Adam Grant’s piece naming that ‘blah’ feeling we felt after 2020, the top story in all but five states was a guide to deleting all of your old online accounts. And most of the five locales that differ — D.C., Maine, New York, North Dakota and Montana — have that story as the second most-saved story.

We saw a few patterns among top stories across several states. Americans weren’t just deleting old online accounts; they were also trying to strengthen their memory, pondering how the rich avoid income tax and wondering how to be wittier in conversation.

We might all have been languishing but we were also questioning if we could improve ourselves — or at least our bank accounts. Some things don’t change, even after two of the strangest years in modern history.

Check below to see the top two stories from your state.

Alabama

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Alaska

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame published on The Atlantic

Arizona

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Arkansas

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
How to be witty and clever in conversation published on Quartz

California

Colorado

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Connecticut

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Delaware

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Among the Insurrectionists published on The New Yorker

District of Columbia

The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship published on The Atlantic
Grief and Conspiracy 20 Years After 9/11 published on The Atlantic

Florida

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
The Curious Case of Florida’s Pandemic Response published on The Atlantic

Georgia

Hawaii

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
How to Practice published on The New Yorker

Idaho

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
The Great Resignation Is Accelerating published on The Atlantic

Illinois

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
A Battle Between a Great City and a Great Lake published on The New York Times

Indiana

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Iowa

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election published on TIME

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
How to be witty and clever in conversation pubished on Quartz

Maine

Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame published on The Atlantic
How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Minnesota

Mississippi

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
How Fit Can You Get From Just Walking? published on GQ

Missouri

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
How to be witty and clever in conversation published on Quartz

Montana

Nebraska

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame published on The Atlantic

Nevada

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

New York

North Carolina

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

North Dakota

Ohio

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Oklahoma

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
5 Questions the Most Interesting People Will Always Ask in Conversations published on Inc

Oregon

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame published on The Atlantic

Pennsylvania

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Rhode Island

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Among the Insurrectionists published on The New Yorker

South Carolina

South Dakota

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
5 Questions the Most Interesting People Will Always Ask in Conversations published on Inc

Vermont

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Among the Insurrectionists published on The New Yorker

Virginia

Washington

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame published on The Atlantic

West Virginia

Wisconsin

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Wyoming

How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) published on How To Geek
Train Your Brain to Remember Anything You Learn With This Simple, 20-Minute Habit published on Inc

Learn more about Pocket’s Best of 2021:

The post Pocket’s state-by-state guide to the most popular articles in 2021 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Celebrating Pocket’s Best of 2021

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:30:00 +0200

We aren’t the only ones putting out Top 10 content lists or Year in Reviews, but we’d argue these lists are different from the rest — a cut above. Pocket readers are a discerning bunch: they gravitate to fascinating long reads that deeply immerse readers in a story or subject; explainers that demystify complex or poorly understood topics; big ideas that challenge us to think and maybe even act differently; and great advice for all facets of life. You’ll find must-read examples of all of these inside these eclectic Best of 2021 collections, from dozens of trustworthy and diverse publications.

The stories people save most to Pocket often provide a fascinating window into what’s occupying our collective attention each year. In 2019, the most-saved article on Pocket examined how modern economic precarity has turned millennials into the burnout generation. In 2020, the most-read article was a probing and prescient examination of how the Covid-19 pandemic might end.

This year, the No. 1 article in Pocket put a name to the chronic sense of ‘blah’ that so many of us felt in 2021 as the uncertainty of the pandemic wore on: languishing. (For months, heads would nod all over Zoom whenever this article came up in conversation.) To mark the end of the year, we asked Adam Grant, the organizational psychologist and bestselling author who wrote the piece, to curate a special Pocket Collection all about how to leave languishing behind in 2021 — and start flourishing in 2022 by breaking free from stagnation and rekindling your spark.

What you’ll also find in this year’s Best Of package: A journey through some of 2021’s most memorable events and storylines, as told through 12 exemplary articles that Pocket users saved to help them make sense of it all. Plus, recommendations from this year’s top writers on the unforgettable stories they couldn’t stop reading, and a special collection from those of us at Pocket about 2021 lessons we won’t soon forget.

If you haven’t read these articles yet, save them to your Pocket and dig in over the holidays. While you’re at it, join the millions of people discovering the thought-provoking articles we curate in our daily newsletter and on the Firefox and Chrome new tab pages each and every day.

From all of us at Pocket, have a joyous and safe holiday season and a happy — and flourishing — new year.

Carolyn O’Hara is senior director of content discovery at Pocket.

The post Celebrating Pocket’s Best of 2021 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Firefox Relay now available with more email aliases with Premium service, protecting your identity and email addresses from spammers

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 16:00:33 +0200

Today, Firefox Relay, a privacy-first and free product that hides your real email address to help protect your identity, is available with a new paid Premium service offering. The release comes just in time for the holiday season to help spare your inbox from being inundated with emails from e-commerce sites, especially those sites where you may shop or visit a few times a year.

In real life you have a phone number where family and friends can call and reach out to you directly. You likely have it memorized by heart and it’s something you’ve had for years. In your online life your email address is like your phone number, it’s a personal and unique identifier. Your email address has become the way we login and access almost every website, app, newsletter, and hundreds of other interactions we have online every single day. That means your email address is in the hands of hundreds, if not thousands, of third parties. As you think more about your email address and the places it’s being used, Firefox Relay can help protect and limit where it’s being shared.

Firefox Relay is a free service available at relay.firefox.com where you’ll get five email aliases to use whenever you sign-up for an online account. Over the last year, the team has been experimenting with Firefox Relay, a smart, easy solution that can preserve the privacy of your email address. Firefox Relay was initially rolled out to a beta phase for early adopters who like to test new products. We heard back from beta testers who provided feedback where we improved the free service and added a new paid Premium service that we’re introducing today.

How Firefox Relay works

Firefox Relay will send and forward your email messages from your alias email addresses to your primary email address. We do not read or keep any of the content in your messages, and all email messages are deleted after they’re sent and delivered to you.

With Firefox Relay, you’ll get five free email aliases and up to 150 kb attachment. You can sign up for Firefox Relay through our site or download it as an add-on. Additionally, we’ve added the ability for labels to be synced across devices. Labels allow you to add information like an account name or a description so it’ll be easier for you to know which sites you are using the alias for. With this new syncing, you’ll be able to see these labels on all your devices, including mobile.

To bring protections to more people, Firefox Relay will now be available in the following languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, English, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian and Welsh.

Here’s how Firefox Relay works:

Step 1: Go to relay.firefox.com

Step 2: Sign in with your Firefox Account or sign up for a Firefox Account (this takes less than two minutes and it’s worth it!)

Step 3: Once you’re signed in you can generate up to five free random email aliases to use. If you need more than five email aliases, you can sign up for a Premium paid service.

Step 4: Then, when you sign up for a new online account you can go to the Firefox Relay dashboard to generate an email alias or you can click the Firefox Relay button that may appear in the login box to use one of those email aliases. Then, Firefox Relay will forward emails from the alias to your real inbox, keeping your actual email address hidden.

Sign up through our website or as an add-on

Want more email address aliases? Try Firefox Relay Premium

During the beta testing phase, we heard from many users who wanted more email address aliases. So, we decided to offer a Premium service where subscribers will receive one subdomain alias to create unlimited email aliases, for example coffeestore@yourdomain.mozmail.com or yourfavoriteshoestore@yourdomain.mozmail.com; a summary dashboard of your email aliases; the option to use your email aliases to reply to emails directly; and customer support through our convenient contact form. Premium subscribers will also receive the 150 kb attachment that is currently available to free subscribers.

For a limited time, we will be offering a very low introductory price of $0.99 a month (available in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand) and 0.99 EUR/1.00 CHF in Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland).

A summary dashboard of your email aliases

Thank you Firefox community and beta testers

We appreciate the thousands of beta testers who participated in the early beta testing phase since we started this journey. It’s their voice and impact that have motivated and inspired us to continue to develop this product. Thanks to their support, we’re happy to graduate the Firefox Relay product and provide a Premium offering.

To learn more about our other Mozilla products, check out these:

The post Firefox Relay now available with more email aliases with Premium service, protecting your identity and email addresses from spammers appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

A Firefox mobile product manager on her favorite corners of the internet

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 21:11:33 +0200

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn’t perfect, but we are also quick to point out that the internet is pretty damn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for people to connect with others, and lets everyone find where they belong — their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In My Corner Of The Internet, we talk with people about the online spaces they can’t get enough of, what we should save in Pocket to read later, and what sites and forums shaped them.

First up is Vesta Ware, a staff product manager at Firefox Mobile here at Mozilla on the parts of the internet she can’t stop talking about (and, yes, that includes Firefox).

What is your favorite corner of the internet?

I love exploring new podcasts on Spotify by people I find inspiring and following talented photographers on Instagram.

What is an internet deep dive that you can’t wait to jump back into?

I can’t wait to go back and finish the last super long, yet fascinating blog I started reading on waitbutwhy.com

What is the one tab you always regret closing?

Just like most people, I sometimes keep tabs open as a way of remembering things I want to get back to and read, research, listen to or buy. If I accidentally close a tab that I am not yet done with, I experience momentarily regret until I remember that Firefox makes it easy to access recently closed tabs.

What can you not stop talking about on the internet right now?

I love how the internet has made it easy and accessible for anyone to learn about anything, connect with people globally, be entertained or find a product. However, there is often so much content competing for our attention, and so much noise to sort through, that we often end up just going back to the same apps or sites, prioritizing convenience and familiarity over variety and diversity of content, or even our privacy. But what if it was just as convenient and familiar to explore the whole web and not just a tiny slice of it? That’s what Firefox Mobile is set out to create. I am really excited about some of the initial steps we’ve taken to remove clutter and highlight content that people care about, and I am really looking forward to feedback that will guide us towards building a personalized and joyful, yet private experience of the whole web.

What was the first online community you engaged with?

I used to write blog posts about film and photography and I remember how exciting it was to see people comment on my posts and engage with them.

What articles and videos are in your Pocket waiting to be read/watched right now?

So many! I love exploring new ideas and perspectives and always found it difficult to keep track of all the articles I wanted to save and read later. Then I was introduced to Pocket, even before joining Mozilla, and it was the perfect solution for me. Now when I open Pocket, there is usually a good mix of articles about Tech, Entertainment and Food waiting for me.

If you could create your own corner of the internet what would it look like?

I’m passionate about creating experiences that help people stay in the moment and not feel like they need to multitask all the time, nurturing their creativity and long-term happiness.

Vesta Ware is a staff product manager at Firefox Mobile where she is currently focused on empowering mobile users to have joyful, diverse and private browsing journeys through the web. Since majoring in cognitive science in university, Vesta became passionate about creating human-technology interfaces that support people’s mental models and solve real everyday problems. She has worked on mobile apps that made financial planning less complicated, advocated for safe community engagement platforms, and built optimized workflows for film and media management. Vesta sees a lot of opportunities to innovate within the mobile space and she likes to stay closely connected with mobile consumers to anticipate their ever-changing needs and create experiences that support them.

The post A Firefox mobile product manager on her favorite corners of the internet appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Firefox’s Private Browsing mode upleveled for you

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:58:45 +0200

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to keep something you are doing on the web to yourself. You might be looking for a ring for your soon-to-be fiance, looking up what those mysterious skin rashes could be, or reading a salacious celebrity gossip blog. That’s where Private Browsing mode comes in handy. This year, we upleveled and added new advanced features to our Private Browsing mode. Before we share more about these new features we wanted to share some of the misconceptions about Private Browsing.

One of the top common myths about Private Browsing (in any major web browser) is that it makes you anonymous on the Internet. The Private Browsing mode on Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox are primarily designed to keep your activity private from other users on the same computer, but websites and Internet service providers can still gather information about your visit, even if you are not signed in. To learn more about other Common Myths, visit our site. You should know though, that Firefox offers something that other browsers don’t, which is advanced privacy protections. Read on to learn more about our unique tracking protections.

How we upgraded Private Browsing mode

Firefox’s Private Browsing was built to give you extra protection. We believe it’s vitally important to do what we can to protect your private browsing history from internet tracking companies. These companies’ trackers are ubiquitous, hiding in web pages to follow you around the web and build detailed profiles about you based on your browsing habits. To combat this problem, Firefox introduced Tracker Blocking for Private Browsing Windows. Tracker Blocking prevents tracking content (images and scripts engineered to spy on you) from a long list of tracking companies from being loaded into your browser.

This year, the Firefox team added new privacy protections to Private Browsing Mode and strengthened the ones we have. We were determined to deliver extra strong privacy protections in Private Browsing mode. Here’s a list of the advanced privacy protections we added to Private Browsing:

Total Cookie Protection – Stop cookie tracking with separate cookie jars

Total Cookie Protection works by maintaining a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit

Smart Block – Ensuring smoother logins, even in Facebook

SmartBlock, our advanced tracker blocking mechanism combines a great web browsing experience with robust privacy protection, by ensuring that you can still use third-party login buttons, including Facebook, to sign in to websites, while providing strong defenses against cross-site tracking. SmartBlock provides local stand-ins for blocked third-party tracking scripts. These stand-in scripts behave just enough like the original ones to make sure that the website works properly. They allow sites relying on the original scripts to load with their functionality intact. The SmartBlock stand-ins are bundled with Firefox, so the chances for third-party content from the trackers to load and track you is very slim, unless you interact with the buttons to sign into Facebook. Additionally, the stand-ins themselves do not contain any code that would support tracking functionality.

HTTPS by Default – Automatically establish a secure, encrypted connection over HTTPS

Insecure connections are not only a risk to your online security, they also reveal the full content of the websites you are browsing to anyone who can monitor your internet traffic, including your ISP. In Private Browsing Windows, Firefox will favor secure connections to the web by default for every website you visit. Firefox’s HTTPS by Default policy in Private Browsing Windows represents a major improvement in the way the browser handles insecure web page addresses. As illustrated in the Figure below, whenever you enter an insecure (HTTP) URL in Firefox’s address bar, or you click on an insecure link on a web page, Firefox will now first try to establish a secure, encrypted HTTPS connection to the website. In the cases where the website does not support HTTPS, Firefox will automatically fall back and establish a connection using the legacy HTTP protocol instead:

Firefox will now first try to establish a secure, encrypted HTTPS connection to the website

You’re still protected even when you’re not in Private Browsing mode

In addition to our protections in Private Browsing, we strive to combat tracking in everyday browsing in Firefox overall, and have brought many protections to normal windows. Our Enhanced Tracking Protection feature blocks many of the worst cookies, fingerprinters and social media tracking cookies by default in all windows.
Anyone familiar with Mozilla knows that caring about your privacy is at the heart of our mission.

For more on Firefox:

Firefox browser privacy features explained

Superhero passwords may be your kryptonite wherever you go online

Latest Firefox release includes Multiple Picture-in-Picture and Total Cookie Protection

The post Firefox’s Private Browsing mode upleveled for you appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Personalize Firefox with colorways

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 19:13:12 +0200

Starting with Firefox version 94, you will be able to personalize your browsing experience with 18 exciting new colorways themes. Each limited edition colorway presents its own individual bespoke characteristic. Find a color that better fits you with our palette.

Learn more about how to get colorways.

The post Personalize Firefox with colorways appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Firefox: the first major browser to be available in the Windows Store

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0200

As of today, Firefox desktop is the first major browser to become available in the Windows Store for Windows 10 and Windows 11 users. Previously, if you were on Windows and wanted to use Firefox, you had to download it from the internet and go through a clunky process from Microsoft. Now that Microsoft has changed its Store policies, choosing Firefox as your desktop browser is even more seamless – and it comes with all the latest Firefox features.

On Windows? Download Firefox directly from the Windows Store

Why choose Firefox?

The core of a web browser is what’s called a “browser engine”. The engine is responsible for loading web pages from sites and displaying them on your screen so that you can see and interact with them. Until recently, Microsoft’s store policies required that all web browsers use the engine that Microsoft had built into their platform which meant we were unable to ship the Firefox you know and love in the Windows Store. This was not only bad for you but bad for the web because it meant that the web on Windows 11 would only have the features Microsoft was willing to provide. People deserve choice and we’re glad there is an easier option to download Firefox on Windows.

Now that Microsoft has changed their policies, we are finally able to ship Firefox with our industry-leading Gecko engine in the Windows Store. This lets us make your experience of the web joyful, safe, private, and fast with unique features like:

Strong privacy protections with Total Cookie Protection, Enhanced Tracking Protection, and DNS over HTTPS

Lightning fast site loading and display using WebRender and Quantum CSS

Discovering more of the web quicker and smarter with Firefox Suggest

Taking control of your entertainment with Multi Picture-in-Picture

Personalizing your experience with seasonal Colorways.

When you choose to use Firefox, you help us advocate for a web that is safer, more private and fast. You signal that you want a choice and the freedom to experience the web on your own terms. We’re excited to make Firefox available in the Windows Store. Try it out!

Not on Windows? Download Firefox here

The post Firefox: the first major browser to be available in the Windows Store appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Welcome Eric Muhlheim, our incoming Chief Financial Officer

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:53:03 +0200

I am excited to announce that Eric Muhlheim has joined Mozilla Corporation as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

As our CFO Eric will be a key member of our steering committee reporting to me. He will lead our continued strategy to scale our mission impact by growing and diversifying our revenue through new investments, product offerings and business opportunities that allow us to better serve our users and advance our agenda for a healthier, more joyful internet.

Eric stood out as a candidate because of his deep operational expertise in both developing and leading organizations, strategic planning, and in growing revenue streams through operations, acquisitions and partnerships. He’s passionate about contributing to broader business issues outside of finance and has demonstrated a strong commitment to our mission and values.

“I’ve long admired Mozilla’s mission to shape the internet as a force for the public good, give people more control over their lives online, and build products that deliver on these promises,” said Muhlheim. “People are looking today more than ever for a trusted guide to help them navigate the web with safety and joy, and Mozilla has the perspective, technology, and products to be this guide. I look forward to putting my background and skills to work to help Mozilla achieve greater impact and build a better internet for everyone.”

Most recently, Eric provided strategic financial and operating services as an independent consultant to a variety of early stage and privately-funded startups. Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at BuzzFeed where he oversaw the restructuring of the company to drive impact, creating a unified sales organization and managing Finance, Accounting, HR, Legal, IT, Facilities, and Security as an integrated operational support team.

Eric started his career at The Walt Disney Company, where he held various leadership roles over more than 15 years, including spending three years as an expatriate in China managing the expansion of Disney English, the company’s China-based learning center business. Following his tenure at Disney, Eric was CFO at Helix Education, a provider of technologies and services to power data-driven higher education growth, and at the programmatic advertising exchange OpenX Technologies.

Eric currently serves on the boards of the Independent Shakespeare Co. of Los Angeles and Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. He graduated from Princeton University cum laude in Mathematics and holds an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’s based in Los Angeles, California.

Please join me in welcoming Eric to Mozilla.

The post Welcome Eric Muhlheim, our incoming Chief Financial Officer appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

8 Firefox pro tips and tricks for Android and iOS (plus a few more)

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:29:34 +0200

With something like 15 billion mobile phones in the world, our collective thumbs are getting a workout from swiping and tapping tiny screens all day. Check out some of our favorite pro tips and tricks for getting the most out of Firefox on your phone and tablet that might also give your thumbs and your brain a break.

1. Jump back in like you never left

You know that feeling of walking into a room and forgetting why you went there, then you leave and suddenly remember? That happens online, too! The new Firefox mobile experience is here to help. Whenever you open the Firefox mobile app, all your open tabs are intuitively grouped and displayed along with your most recent saves (bookmarks and reading list), searches and favorite sites. Even if you get distracted, Firefox gets you back on track so you can pick right up where you left off.

How to see it: Open a new tab, and jump back in through your home screen. To move things around, scroll to the bottom of your home screen and tap Customize homepage.

2. Take a shortcut to your favorite sites

Firefox learns what sites you visit most and populates the app’s home screen with shortcuts so you can jump quickly back into those sites. With eight shortcut spots available at the top of the screen, you might also want to pin a few favorite sites yourself like:

3. Add widgets for quick access

On iOS: The iOS Widget feature is perfect for setting up shortcuts to all your favorite quick actions in Firefox — searching the web, private browsing, private web searches and opening a link from your clipboard for example. You can even turn the top news and entertainment sites you cycle through daily into a widget for fast access from your home screen.

On Android: Add a Firefox widget to search with from your Android home screen without needing to first launch the browser.

4. Tap to reader mode for instant decluttering

Using a mobile phone to read on the go is essential, however ads, images and other embedded content can make for a chaotic visual experience, especially on small screens. Firefox reader mode is the go-to trick to cut the clutter and get to the text.

How to do it: Tap the icon in your URL bar to turn on reader mode. Tap it again to turn it off.

5. Send tabs across the room, across town and anywhere you’re logged in

This is a pro move that anyone can pull off. Want to send a tab from your small phone screen to your big computer screen? Beam that tab up and send it on its way! It’s a clever way to move content from on screen to another.

From your phone: Tap the share icon in your menu bar, then Send to Device. If no device is listed, sign into your Firefox account to enable tab sending.

From your computer: Right click on a tab, then select Send Tab to Device.

6. Tap, swipe, share tabs through any app

Speaking of tabs, Firefox makes it easier to share website tabs through other apps (like chats, texts and social media) on your phone that’s so much better than copy/paste.

How to do it: Tap the Firefox share icon (three connected dots), then swipe through your apps to share directly through any of them.

7. Go easy on the eyes with dark mode

Dark mode is handy if your eyes need a break. Browsing in dark mode or light mode is a tap away in Firefox, or you can set it to follow your device mode schedule.

Android modes: Tap into the Settings menu, then hit Customize.

iOS modes: Firefox will automatically match the iOS mode — dark or light. You can override that in your settings, or enable Night Mode to reduce brightness.

8. Mask up for private browsing

We don’t need to know everything you do online, because honestly, we’re obsessed with protecting your privacy. Firefox Private Browsing automatically erases info like passwords, cookies and history from your device so that when you close out, you leave no trace. While it won’t make you totally anonymous to websites or your ISP, private browsing mode makes it easier to keep what you do online private from anyone else who happens to use your device.

How to do it: Tap the mask for instant Private Browsing. The background turns purple to denote Private Browsing mode. Tap the mask again to switch back to regular browsing.

Plus some Android-only tips

Curate tabs into Collections

Our phones have quickly become central organizers to everything we think about, like puppy training tips, best one pot meals and dream vacation lists. Firefox for Android makes it easy to organize browser tabs into any grouping you want with Collections.

How to do it: Tap the Settings menu (the three stacked dots) on an open tab to start a Collection, then name it and add tabs to it. You can also send entire tab collections to Firefox on your computer (see the Send tabs tip above) or share them them all with other people.

Expand browser features with add-ons

Add-ons add features to Firefox to make browsing faster, safer or just plain fun. To see the vetted Firefox for Android add-ons, tap the the three dots, then tap Add-ons.

Clear and clean up your tabs automatically

Like any self-proclaimed tab hoarder, we know that tabs can pile up. Ever notice that the number of open tabs on your phone is ∞ ? When you hit that, you will have officially crossed over to infinite tabs (which is really just >100.) Now you can set Firefox to clean up on your behalf.

How to do it: Go to your Settings and tap Tabs to select the duration that you want to close them automatically. Then, tap back to Delete browsing data on quit to tell Firefox when you want to clear your history, cookies, tabs and more from your device every time you quit the app.

Get it all from an indie company that puts people before profit

When you download Firefox, you’re choosing to support an independent tech company. Firefox is the only major browser backed by a non-profit fighting to give you more openness, transparency and control of your life online.

The post 8 Firefox pro tips and tricks for Android and iOS (plus a few more) appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Life is complicated. There’s more than one way to browse to meet your needs with Firefox Focus.

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 00:03:39 +0200

According to researchers, the average person has about 6,200 thoughts throughout the day. That’s a lot of time spent bouncing between random thought bubbles like:

Does my cat understand me?
Who is Kaia Gerber’s mom?
Best sneaky vegan side dishes
Why is everyone talking about bones or no bones?
Parkour vs slacklining
Cheapest flights to New York City
When does the World Cup start?
Minecraft hacks
What happened to the Firefox logo?

Naturally, you hop on the web to get answers. If you want to keep your random web browsing separate and private, Firefox Focus is THE companion phone app for all those forget-about-it moments online.

Q: Firefox or Firefox Focus?

A: Both!

Using Firefox as your default mobile browser makes life’s busy moments easier and more efficient with tabs and bookmarks synced between devices, secure password management, streamlined reader mode and a customizable home screen.

Simply private mobile browsing for your Android and iOS devices

Get Firefox Focus

No matter what mobile browser you use — Firefox, Chrome or Safari — Focus can work right alongside it. Focus is the ideal companion app for instant privacy so you can do quick searches on the go and then tap the trash button or close the app to make your browser history and searches disappear behind the purple curtain.

@mozilla
Reply to @owo_hasawoken it’s complicated! There *are* good cookies, but SO many are for ads & you should be in control of your own info! #privacy
♬ original sound – Mozilla

Automatic tracking protection means speed and privacy on mobile

The latest version of Firefox Focus comes with a refreshed, distraction-free design and the same privacy protections you’ve come to expect from us.

The protections dashboard from Firefox for desktop now appears in Focus for your mobile devices. Tap the shield icon to expose how many trackers the Focus app has blocked from snooping on you. Here’s the best part — automatic tracking protection and ad blocking means your pages load faster while your data stays private.

Instant privacy that’s also customizable

You can also set Focus as your go-to app for return visits to your favorite sites, going beyond the quick and private searches. Just pin those sites to your Focus home screen, so you can quickly hop back in as soon as you open the app.

Firefox’s famous Enhanced Tracking Protection is enabled automatically in Focus to block known advertising, analytics, and social trackers and scripts. That’s easy to modify by tapping on the shield icon and adjusting the sliders. Even if you do change your privacy settings, you can do so with the knowledge that your browsing history along with any cookies that try to follow you are deleted from your device when you tap the Focus trash can.

When it comes to quick privacy while browsing the web, tap the Firefox Focus icon on your phone. Go ahead and mull some of 6,200 thoughts that pop into your head each day, and keep it to yourself. With Firefox Focus, your business isn’t our business.

The post Life is complicated. There’s more than one way to browse to meet your needs with Firefox Focus. appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Firefox brings you a new homepage making it easier to jump back in to the stuff you care about on your mobile devices

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 15:00:15 +0200

Today, we are rolling out a brand new Firefox homepage on Android and iOS, designed for those on-the-go, short bursts of online interactions that are constantly interrupted by life.

With this new Firefox homepage we wanted to lift that heavy mental burden of remembering to finish those halfway read articles or vacation research until you are ready to jump back and finish those tasks. We’ve simplified and organized your on-the-go mobile experiences into one central location, complete with new features to help you ignore the online noise and focus on what matters to you. Welcome to your new Firefox homepage, delivering a fast, intuitive and useful browser!

In May 2021, we redesigned the browsing experience with a new Firefox release. In today’s mobile release we continue to put our users first and today introduce a completely new homepage experience that helps you accomplish what you set out to do whenever you go online. The new Firefox home is a re-entry point for you to access previously opened tabs with articles you have yet to finish, sites you’ve bookmarked, and search histories organized by topics so you can find it all in one central spot. Today’s mobile release is just the beginning as we plan to roll out more features that build on this experience. Check out the new homepage, a place to organize your thoughts and interests:

Everything you need to get on with your mobile online life

Based on user feedback we designed the new Firefox homepage and organized it in a way that helps you jump right back into what you care more about, saving you time and headspace, and removing the visual clutter that can often leave us feeling overwhelmed. These new features include:

Jump back into your last open tab: There are moments in your day when you are reading an article and suddenly get distracted. To help you get back to what you were doing in a split second, we’ve created an easy way to jump back into your last open active tab or just as quickly start a new search.

Jump back into your last open active tab

Recently saved bookmarks are now easily available from your homepage: In the past, users would use bookmarks or browser history to get to information they wanted to review later. To make it easy to get to your bookmarks, we’ve added the most recent bookmarks you’ve viewed to the Firefox homepage. For Firefox accounts users, you’ll also have your recently saved desktop bookmarks available to you on Firefox on mobile. You can also get to all of your bookmarks by clicking on Show All.
Recent searches grouped by topic: There are times when you go deep into a topic you’re researching like a city that you’re planning to travel to or that big ticket electronic item. Before you purchase those items, you search reviews and articles for some time. Instead of the gazillions tabs piling up on that topic, Firefox for Android now groups and lists them so you can easily get back into the flow of researching. We’ll keep the information readily available for you for 14 days.

Your recent searches grouped by topic

Clutter free tabs: In the physical world, a room full of unpacked boxes or a sink full of dishes is a sight that can make you feel overwhelmed before you’ve completed the task. Now, think about your mobile device and the visual clutter you encounter every day as you add more and more tabs throughout the week. We heard from users who kept tabs so they can go back to them at a later time but struggled with “tab clutter.” So, when we tested this new feature they saw the benefit as a useful and considerate reminder of what they haven’t looked at. Once you haven’t visited a tab within 14 days, we will move it to an “inactive state”. This means that you can still hold on and go back to those tabs but they will no longer clutter your view and you can easily close them when you’re ready. This feature will only be available on Android and will be available on iOS in the coming months.

Choose your own Pocket stories: After our relaunch of Firefox for Android, we heard from our users that they loved exploring new articles from Pocket but wanted content that was tailored to their area of interest. Today, we are introducing a variety of topics that you can choose from to customize your Pocket feed to what matches your interests. The customizable feature will only be available on Android. On iOS, users continue to get Pocket stories but the customizable feature is not yet available.

Pocket stories customized by you

We’re excited to make all of these exciting new features available to you today. In order to try them out, please make sure to get the fast, private browser for your desktop and mobile: Firefox on Android and Firefox for iOS.

Your new Firefox homepage

For more on Firefox:

News from Firefox Focus and Firefox on Mobile

7 things to know (and love) about the new Firefox for Android

Modern, clean new Firefox clears the way to all you need online

The post Firefox brings you a new homepage making it easier to jump back in to the stuff you care about on your mobile devices appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Introducing New Colorways for Firefox 94

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 15:00:00 +0200

Today, Firefox is launching Colorways, a new feature that allows our users to express their most authentic selves and to bring them joy while browsing the web. As we challenge what the browser has been, and expand and define the vision of what Firefox browser is and can be, part of that challenge is to ask ourselves “who is it for and who can use it easily and feel included in the experience?”

We caught up with Mikal Lewis, Senior Director, Product Management for Firefox, to hear more about his vision for Firefox and the impetus for launching Colorways.

Can you speak more to your vision for Firefox — what’s happening now, and what’s exciting about where it is headed?

Privacy has been part of our vision from day one and is always going to be part of what we deliver on in our product. We’re making the connection that a safe and joyful internet is a colorful one, and ultimately we want to connect with the people that make the internet a colorful place. We know Firefox users are aware that other browsers and tools exist that they could use for being online, leveraging the internet and getting things done. But they come to rely on Firefox in many ways as their personal browser of choice in large part because of the experience our privacy features offer, but now also because of the joy we can help provide in different ways. So our vision of Firefox is to help those customers continue to have a world-class experience and get more from the internet every day with less compromises that come with the internet.

Why make color-based customization a top priority for a product like a web browser?

We know that we are spending more time in this digital ecosystem — not the concrete jungle, but the digital jungle. So much more of our life is flowing through what have historically been these gray boxes. And we don’t really tolerate this type of what I would say are one-size-fits-all tools anywhere else in our lives. And so, it just feels like a natural extension to allow people to make this tool that they’re leveraging every day feel more of their own, to feel fresh, to be exciting, to just bring in that small moment of delight to their day.

We identified that color is a way to connect with people across all divides (and we have research that people respond positively to it) — it is a universal language that transcends the boundaries of our diverse verbal languages. And we chose “Colorways” rather than “themes” to show we are branching out from our language of “browser” to speak the language of everyday life and everyday users. This is about more than just installing a new “theme,” which really doesn’t have much meaning to most people.

Why is it important for you that people who use Firefox should have these customizable choices?

Using the web is fun! The web is fun, it should be fun. The only way you get on the web should not be by choosing your different colored gray box. The web is a rich tapestry. Why does it only have to be one way? Why can’t you have this delight and joy that you bring to the experience? And specifically with how much we use the web and rely on it every day. That is the core story and a big grounding reason for this: because it’s fun.

New Colorways for Firefox 94

What body of research guided you to developing these color-based customizations in a browser? What have you learned from early conversations with users?

I think it was a hypothesis that I had early on. Coming from the fashion industry, the limited edition drop, to those outside the industry, could really feel like this money grab where you’re like, “Doing this one special…” But for people who love fashion and people who love expression, it’s so special and it has so much evocative meaning to people. You’ll hear customers talk about a shirt like, “That color is just… If this was a slightly darker shade of blue, I’d be okay with it,” or, “If this yellow was a little bit more subdued, I’d be okay with it.” Knowing we select our fashion as well as the tools to navigate our tools, we’ve begun to hypothesize about how we can bring more expression into Firefox, more things to choose from that delight. It’s the same brain to evaluate our tools, choose an outfit, and navigate our day, so I’ve had the hypothesis that people are interested in customizing their tools and making it more of their own, potentially the same way they choose an outfit.

But what really guided this specific release was that it’s just what we learned when we did our redesign in June. When we gave people the opportunity to choose a new way to express themselves with color in their browsing experience, their engagement shot through the roof. I mean, the adoption of certain themes increased by more than 200%. We came up with the question, what if we really lean into this? What would that experience look like, and what is the experience that we can give our customers? Those all came together and have formed the basis for this release, which we think is really just the beginning of making sure that the experience of using Firefox is your expression of Firefox.

When we gave people the opportunity to choose a new way to express themselves with color in their browsing experience, their engagement shot through the roof. I mean, the adoption of certain themes increased by more than 200%.
Mikal Lewis on the impetus for creating new Colorways for Firefox 94

What inspired you to make the jump from fashion and retail into a tech company, which is best known for their web browser?

Mozilla most reminds me, through my career, of my time at Nordstrom, which is another purpose-driven company. At Nordstrom, I helped people express their best selves every day. And as I think about tech more broadly and what I wanted to do next, I felt like there was a gap in both purpose-driven companies, but also there was also a need for our tools to address the whole body experience of what it means to be a person. What I mean is: the tools are usable and provide functionality, but especially ones that we use every day like the browser, actually become extensions of ourselves. I have felt like there were some really great parallels in terms of how the retail environment and shopping experience is both a task and something that brings people joy.

Tell us about your personal style.

I was always really into fashion and relatively on the cutting edge, and joining Nordstrom actually forced me to be a little bit more reflective about my style. I’ve leaned more into normcore, which for me focuses on quality fashion products, and specifically a lot of textures. And while my wardrobe may be monochromatic, that has actually made fashion a little bit more fun and almost challenging for me because it really has to be the right piece to really be a tool of expression, while also being monochrome. I was told that I would not survive the heat in an all-black wardrobe when I moved to Texas, but it has stuck around.

Which fashion designers do you admire and why?

Three that have caught my eye for their attention to detail and use of color are Christopher John Rogers, Vince, and arts like Felipe Pantone. You saw CJR all over the Met Gala, and now at a major retailer like Target, which brings runway fashion to the masses and makes it accessible to everyone. A company like Vince has caught my eye for a while because of what they’re doing with really, really simple fashion garments. They are creating interest in high-quality fashion products that are actually really fashion-forward, but at the same time, sticking with a relatively subdued set of constraints. Felipe Pantone is an artist, not a fashion designer, and I love his work because it feels like a collision between an analog past and a digitized future. That resonates with me and others who grew up with tech and the internet. He also has a wonderful quote that ties really well to our Colorways update: “Color only happens because of light, and light is the only reason why life happens. Light and color are the very essence of visual art. Thanks to television, computers, and modern lighting, our perception of light and color has changed completely.”

Recent work by Felipe Pantone. Courtesy: https://www.felipepantone.com/work

Is there a parallel between designing products for tech companies and those within the fashion industry? If so, what is it to you?

One thing about the Firefox experience that is the same with fashion is that our experience is always going to be fresh. We’re never going to be static. And so whether it’s Colorways or other exciting experiences we unlock for our Firefox customers, you should expect that there’s always going to be a fresh way of expressing yourself with Firefox.

What experience do you want to create for users?

As we expand and define the vision of what a browser is and can be and challenge what it has been, part of that challenge is who it is for and who can use it easily and feel included in the experience. It’s not just for highly technical people. From the perspective of the Firefox product we believe that the internet must enrich lives, and we seek to do this in all of our core product planning in various ways. One way is to seek to bring more of a visceral, felt, emotive level to the browser experience that feels more connected to all people, more inclusive in general and more inclusive of experiences in the real world…we want to bring more of the external felt world to the digital experience.

How many more themes and Colorways are there?

In this release, there are 18 themes based on six Colorways with three experiences of each color — soft, balanced and bold. These Colorways are here for the next two product releases (they won’t go away if you’ve selected it). This is a limited-time release which is intended to embrace the “now moment.” We know colors trends are always changing to offer delight and excitement seasonally. So these will be spotlighted for two cycles of release in Firefox onboarding as limited time play to enjoy to spark more engagement and interest.

What’s next for Firefox colorways?

We’ll see. We’ll go where our customers take us. Colorways are just the start of a dialogue of our expression of Firefox, what we believe the experience of using the independent browser should be and could be. And we really look forward to hearing how our customers engage with it and where they’re interested in taking these Colorways experiences next.

The post Introducing New Colorways for Firefox 94 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.