WebProNews

Tag: Firefox

  • Mozilla Laying Off 250 Employees Due to Coronavirus

    Mozilla Laying Off 250 Employees Due to Coronavirus

    Mozilla has announced it is laying off approximately 250 employees, as a result of the effect of the pandemic on the company’s revenue.

    Mozilla laid off 70 employees back in January in an effort to help fund further innovation. At the time, CEO Mitchell Baker indicated there could be more layoffs in the future. At the time, however, no one could have predicted a worldwide pandemic, or the impact it would have on Mozilla’s business.

    “Today we announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation,” writes Baker. “This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people. These are individuals of exceptional professional and personal caliber who have made outstanding contributions to who we are today. To each of them, I extend my heartfelt thanks and deepest regrets that we have come to this point. This is a humbling recognition of the realities we face, and what is needed to overcome them.”

    While a difficult decision, Baker says it will help Mozilla be more nimble and competitive in the new tech climate.

    “So going forward we will be smaller.,” continues Baker. “We’ll also be organizing ourselves very differently, acting more quickly and nimbly. We’ll experiment more. We’ll adjust more quickly. We’ll join with allies outside of our organization more often and more effectively. We’ll meet people where they are. We’ll become great at expressing and building our core values into products and programs that speak to today’s issues. We’ll join and build with all those who seek openness, decency, empowerment and common good in online life.”

  • Comcast Joins Mozilla’s Secure Browsing Initiative

    Comcast Joins Mozilla’s Secure Browsing Initiative

    Comcast has become the first ISP to join Mozilla’s initiative and “provide Firefox users with private and secure encrypted Domain Name System (DNS) services through Mozilla’s Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) Program.”

    Mozilla has been one of the companies on the forefront of protecting user privacy. One of the areas they have been focusing on is encrypting DNS traffic, which helps protect browsing activity from collection, interception or manipulation. For this to work, however, it requires partner companies to agree to standard rules about how data is collected, protected and used.

    While companies like Cloudflare and NextDNS have signed on to Mozilla’s TRR Program, Comcast is the first ISP to sign on.

    “We’re proud to be the first ISP to join with Mozilla to support this important evolution of DNS privacy. Engaging with the global technology community gives us better tools to protect our customers, and partnerships like this advance our mission to make our customers’ internet experience more private and secure,” said Jason Livingood, Vice President, Technology Policy and Standards at Comcast Cable.

    “Comcast has moved quickly to adopt DNS encryption technology and we’re excited to have them join the TRR program,” said Eric Rescorla, Firefox CTO. “Bringing ISPs into the TRR program helps us protect user privacy online without disrupting existing user experiences. We hope this sets a precedent for further cooperation between browsers and ISPs.”

    This is good news for Comcast and Firefox users. Hopefully Comcast won’t be the last ISP to sign on with Mozilla’s TRR Program.

  • Mozilla Unveils Email Aliases With Firefox Private Relay

    Mozilla Unveils Email Aliases With Firefox Private Relay

    Mozilla has announced it is working on Private Relay, an email alias generating service designed to protect user privacy.

    As more websites and services require email addresses to sign up, customers are often inundated with mailing lists and spam. Even worse, many companies play fast and loose with security, jeopardizing people’s privacy by not protecting their personal information, such as their email address. Some individuals maintain multiple addresses, specifically for the purpose of using one or more for purchases, signups and mailing lists.

    Mozilla, a longtime leader in internet privacy, wants to make the whole process a little easier with their Private Relay, a Firefox add-on that will allow users to create an email alias with a single click. The add-on will work with online forms, using the alias in the email field, and then forwarding any email to the person’s real email address. If the alias begins to receive unwanted emails, it can be disabled or deleted.

    This is a welcome feature that will make web browsing and email a little more private and secure.

  • Mozilla Raising Firefox Bug Bounties

    Mozilla Raising Firefox Bug Bounties

    Mozilla has announced it is raising the bug bounties it pays for Firefox to $10,000.

    Bug bounties are a popular way of encouraging developers and “white hats,” the term for ethical hackers that find and report vulnerabilities, to work with companies and test their products and services. Most major companies pay significant bounties for bugs that are reported to them. In many cases, white hats are able to make a full-time income off the bounties they collect.

    According to Mozilla’s blog post, the company has made use of bug bounties since 2004, paying out some $965,750 between 2017 and 2019. While the average payout was $2,775, the most common amount was $4,000.

    The company is making a number of changes to make the bounty program more accessible, while also splitting bounties among duplicate reports that are filed within 72 hours of the first report. This is being done in an effort to reward individuals who may have come in second or third by mere hours. In addition, the company is raising its payouts.

    “Besides rewarding duplicate submissions, we’re clarifying our payout criteria and raising the payouts for higher impact bugs,” writes Mozilla’s Tom Ritter. “Now, sandbox escapes and related bugs will be eligible for a baseline $8,000, with a high quality report up to $10,000. Additionally, proxy bypass bugs are eligible for a baseline of $3,000, with a high quality report up to $5,000.“

    Mozilla’s announcement will likely be a big motivation for white hats to continue finding and reporting bugs in Firefox.

  • Mozilla Launches ‘Firefox Better Web with Scroll’ Test Pilot

    Mozilla Launches ‘Firefox Better Web with Scroll’ Test Pilot

    Firefox has announced the launch of a new Test Pilot program, Better Web with Scroll, aimed at improving the web experience for both publishers and users.

    Firefox is one of the most privacy-oriented companies in the world, and is constantly working to tackle problems related to privacy and the overall health of the web. Its latest initiative is designed to help publishers who have been hard hit by various privacy features, while at the same time incentivizing them to focus on quality content, rather than ad-driven quantity.

    “If we’re going to create a better internet for everyone, we need to figure out how to make it work for publishers,” writes Matt Grimes. “Last year, we launched Enhanced Tracking Protection by default and have blocked more than two trillion third-party trackers to date, but it didn’t directly address the problems that publishers face. That’s where our partner Scroll comes in. By engaging with a better funding model, sites in their growing network no longer have to show you ads to make money. They can focus on quality not clicks. Firefox Better Web with Scroll gives you the fast, private web you want and supports publishers at the same time.”

    The new initiative is based on Mozilla’s previously announced efforts to find alternative ways for publishers to monetize their content, without relying on ads. This is what led the non-profit to partner with Scroll. To join Firefox Better Web, users need to sign up for a Firefox account and install an extension. For the first six months, the service is discounted 50%, costing $2.50 a month. The money goes into a fund that is used to compensate writers and publishers. According to Mozilla, early tests show sites make at least 40% more than they would relying on ads.

    “Firefox Better Web combines the work we’ve done with third-party tracking protection and Scroll’s network of outstanding publishers,” adds Grimes. “This ensures you will get a top notch experience while still supporting publishers directly and keeping the web healthy.”

  • DuckDuckGo Releases Tracker Radar to Expose Hidden Tracking

    DuckDuckGo Releases Tracker Radar to Expose Hidden Tracking

    DuckDuckGo is the preeminent privacy-oriented search engine and the company is taking it a step further by releasing a tool to help expose hidden tracking.

    As the company points out, a quality tracking blocker is critical to online privacy. Without one, advertisers can amass a shocking amount of detail about web users, including location history, browsing history, shopping history and more. Combining the data they collect can even give them a pretty good idea of exactly how old a user is, their ethnicity, preferences and habits.

    When the company started exploring possibilities, it was not happy with the state of current options.

    “When we set out to add tracker protection, we found that existing lists of trackers were mostly manually curated, which meant they were often stale and never comprehensive,” reads the company’s announcement. “And, even worse, those lists sometimes break websites, which hinders mainstream adoption. So, over the last couple of years we built our own data set of trackers based on a crawling process that doesn’t have these drawbacks. We call it DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar. It is automatically generated, constantly updated, and continually tested.

    “Today we’re proud to release DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar to the world, and are also open sourcing the code that generates it. This follows our recent release of our Smarter Encryption data and crawling code (that powers the upgraded website encryption component in our apps and extensions).

    “Tracker Radar contains the most common cross-site trackers and includes detailed information about their tracking behavior, including prevalence, ownership, fingerprinting behavior, cookie behavior, privacy policy, rules for specific resources (with exceptions for site breakage), and performance data.”

    Tracker Radar is included in DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser for iOS and Android, as well as the Privacy essentials browser extension for Safari, Firefox and Chrome on the desktop. Developers can also download Tracker Radar and include it in their own tools.

  • Mozilla’s Firefox VPN Now Available In Beta

    Mozilla’s Firefox VPN Now Available In Beta

    Mozilla’s standalone Firefox VPN service has entered beta and is available for Windows, Android and Chromebooks.

    Mozilla has emerged as one of the staunchest privacy advocates in corporate America, coming out in favor of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), vowing to extend its protections to all Firefox users. Similarly, Mozilla extended the protections offered by the EU’s GDPR to all users as well.

    Given its strong focus on privacy, it’s not surprising Mozilla has opted to offer VPN software. VPNs are critical components for journalists and political dissidents around the world, not to mention corporate use and anyone concerned with privacy.

    Mozilla is offering two varieties: one as a free browser extension and the other as a standalone service for $4.99/mo. The latter is what is now available in beta. Mozilla touts servers in 30+ countries and no browser or network monitoring or logging. The service can be used on five devices under a single account.

    The beta is currently available for Windows 10, Android and Chromebooks, with macOS, iOS and Linux coming soon.

  • Mozilla Lays Off Employees To Help Fund Innovation

    Mozilla Lays Off Employees To Help Fund Innovation

    Mozilla interim CEO Mitchell Baker announced a round of layoffs at the software company, citing the need to “innovate in the areas most likely to impact the state of the internet and internet life.”

    TechCrunch originally reported the story, with news that some 70 employees were impacted. This is a relatively high number for a corporation that only employees around 1,000 people, and Baker indicated there may be more yet to come.

    The vast majority of Mozilla’s income is derived from search royalties. Search engines, such as Google, pay Mozilla a portion of advertising income when a user searches using the built-in search bar. For several years Yahoo was Mozilla’s default search engine, and a large source of their revenue, until Mozilla cancelled the agreement in 2017. Now, much of Mozilla’s revenue comes from Google, the maker of Chrome. This puts the software company in the awkward—and potentially dangerous—position of relying on its prime competitor as the primary source of its income. As a result, Mozilla has been working on efforts to diversify its income streams for some time. Unfortunately, those appear to be taking longer to pay off than anticipated.

    “You may recall that we expected to be earning revenue in 2019 and 2020 from new subscription products as well as higher revenue from sources outside of search. This did not happen,” Baker writes in her memo, according to TechCrunch. “Our 2019 plan underestimated how long it would take to build and ship new, revenue-generating products. Given that, and all we learned in 2019 about the pace of innovation, we decided to take a more conservative approach to projecting our revenue for 2020. We also agreed to a principle of living within our means, of not spending more than we earn for the foreseeable future.”

    The employees impacted by the layoffs will receive “generous exit packages” and help finding new jobs. In the post on the company’s site, Baker discussed how difficult the decision was but, at the same time, emphasized how strong Mozilla is positioned going forward.

    “Mozilla has a strong line of sight on future revenue generation from our core business. In some ways, this makes this action harder, and we are deeply distressed about the effect on our colleagues. However, to responsibly make additional investments in innovation to improve the internet, we can and must work within the limits of our core finances.”

  • PSA: Update Firefox Immediately—Critical Vulnerability Being Exploited

    PSA: Update Firefox Immediately—Critical Vulnerability Being Exploited

    A recent release of Mozilla Firefox has a vulnerability severe enough that even the Department of Homeland Security is telling everyone to update.

    According to Mozilla, “incorrect alias information in IonMonkey JIT compiler for setting array elements could lead to a type confusion. We are aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing this flaw.”

    That last statement is particularly worrisome, as many software flaws are patched before bad actors start abusing them. In this case, however, this flaw is already being exploited.

    The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber-Infrastructure (CISA) division states the following:

    “Mozilla has released security updates to address a vulnerability in Firefox and Firefox ESR. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. This vulnerability was detected in exploits in the wild.

    “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encourages users and administrators to review the Mozilla Security Advisory for Firefox 72.0.1 and Firefox ESR 68.4.1 and apply the necessary updates.”

    As CISA points out, this flaw impacts both the regular and enterprise (ESR) versions of Firefox, so ALL users should update immediately. Individuals can use the app’s built-in updater or go to Mozilla’s official site for the latest version.

  • Mozilla Bringing California Privacy Protections To All Firefox Users

    Mozilla Bringing California Privacy Protections To All Firefox Users

    The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1, but Mozilla has vowed to apply its protections to all Firefox users in 2020.

    CCPA is a law California passed to protect user privacy and give people more control over how corporations can use their data. CCPA requires companies to be transparent about what data they collect and how they use it, as well as give users the ability to stop companies from selling their data.

    Microsoft was one of the first companies to publicly commit to applying CCPA protection to all of its U.S. customers. Mozilla is taking it a step further, applying CCPA rights to all Firefox users around the world. This is not the first time Mozilla has taken this stand. When the EU passed its GDPR privacy legislation, Mozilla similarly extended those protections to all users.

    Mozilla is also committing to extending these rules to so-called “telemetry data,” the anonymous technical information about browser usage that helps Mozilla improve security and performance.

    “One of CCPA’s key new provisions is its expanded definition of ‘personal data’ under CCPA. This expanded definition allows for users to request companies delete their user specific data.

    “As a rule, Firefox already collects very little of your data. In fact, most of what we receive is to help us improve the performance and security of Firefox. We call this telemetry data. This telemetry doesn’t tell us about the websites you visit or searches you do; we just know general information, like a Firefox user had a certain amount of tabs opened and how long their session was. We don’t collect telemetry in private browsing mode and we’ve always given people easy options to disable telemetry in Firefox. And because we’ve long believed that data should not be stored forever, we have strict limits on how long we keep telemetry data.

    “We’ve decided to go the extra mile and expand user deletion rights to include deleting this telemetry data stored in our systems. To date, the industry has not typically considered telemetry data ‘personal data’ because it isn’t identifiable to a specific person, but we feel strongly that taking this step is the right one for people and the ecosystem.”

    This is good news for all Firefox users and will likely help it continue to gain market share amongst privacy-minded individuals. Hopefully more companies will follow Mozilla and Microsoft’s example.

  • New Google Chrome Feature May Drive Users to Firefox

    New Google Chrome Feature May Drive Users to Firefox

    The Register is reporting on a new feature in an upcoming version of Google Chrome that has privacy-conscious users worried. A recent API called getInstalledRelatedApps may allow websites to determine what apps are installed on a user’s device.

    At first glance, the API seems to have an admirable purpose. If users have both web and native applications installed, they could be bombarded by duplicate sets of notifications. If a website can determine that its native app is installed, it would then prioritize notifications for the native app. Unfortunately, the API doesn’t really seem to be aimed at improving the experience—not for the user at least.

    In response to a question from Opera developer Daniel Bratell, expressing concern about how this API would help users, Google engineer Rayan Kanso wrote:

    “Although this isn’t an API that would directly benefit users, it indirectly benefits them through improved web experiences,” Kanso wrote. “We received very positive OT [off-topic] feedback from partners using this API, and the alternative is them using hacks to figure whether their native app is installed.”

    In other words, this API is more about making it easier for web and app developers’ marketing needs than it is truly making users’ lives easier.

    The privacy implications are clear: If websites can determine what apps are installed on a person’s phone or tablet, it can provide a relatively complete picture, otherwise known as a fingerprint, about that person’s habits.

    As The Register points out, Peter Snyder, a privacy researcher at browser maker Brave, voiced his own concerns:

    “I don’t follow the claim about non-fingerprint-ability. If I’m a company with a large number of apps (e.g. google), with 16-32 apps registered in app stores, the subset of which apps any user has installed is likely to be a very strong semi-identifier, no, and so be extremely risky for the user / valuable for the fingerprinter, no?

    “Apologies if I’m misunderstanding, but this seems like a very clear privacy risk.

    Put differently, if this isn’t a privacy risk, whats the rational behind disallowing this in private browsing mode?”

    With browsers like Firefox and Safari placing an emphasis on privacy and security, it’s a safe bet this is yet another move that will drive users away from Chrome.

  • Google Chrome Revealed As Cause of Mass Mac Pro Failure

    Google Chrome Revealed As Cause of Mass Mac Pro Failure

    Earlier this week, studios and video shops in Hollywood and around the country went into collective panic mode when their Mac Pro workstations refused to reboot.

    News started hitting Twitter September 24 as Mac Pros started slowly crashing and refusing to boot up again. Almost immediately, keen-eyed users started noticing that affected systems were running older versions of macOS, as well as Avid’s Media Composer. In addition to a statement by the company, Avid’s CEO Jeff Rosica and its CTO Tim Claman released a video promising their engineers were working “around the clock” to address the problem.

    Despite fears the issues might be caused by a virus, by Wednesday, September 25 Google Chrome had been identified as the culprit. On Google’s Chrome Help site, a support manager made the statement:

    “We recently discovered that a Chrome update may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines with System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled, including machines that do not support SIP. We’ve paused the release while we finalize a new update that addresses the problem.”

    This comes on the heels of a recent, high-profile article in the Washington Post labeling Chrome as spyware and encouraging individuals to switch to Firefox. Meanwhile, both Firefox and Apple have increased their privacy efforts in a clear shot across Google’s bow.

    While users may be willing to trade privacy for convenience, Google may have a harder time getting people to stay with Chrome if it gets a reputation for corrupting expensive workstations.

  • Popular Google, FireFox Extension is Secretly Tracking User Activity

    Popular Google, FireFox Extension is Secretly Tracking User Activity

    A popular browser extension that helps personalize how a website looks has been found to be tracking user activity. The revelation has pushed Google and Mozilla to remove the Stylish browser extension from their app stores. However, the extension’s official website still remains active.

    Software engineer Robert Heaton claimed in a blog post that the Stylish extension tool steals a user’s internet history and sends information about a person’s browsing history and distinct identifiers to SimilarWeb, the extension’s owner. According to Heaton, this will allow the company to “connect all of an individual’s actions into a single profile.”

    Heaton further explained that Stylish account holders typically have a unique identifier that can be linked to a login cookie. This will then provide SimilarWeb with enough information to “theoretically tie these histories to email addresses and real-world identities.”

    Stylish is an open-source browser extension that gives users the capability to change how a website appears on their browser. With it, users can make websites look brighter and campier. They can also go for a brooding, darker theme or choose popular manga or cartoon characters to add to the website.

    SimilarWeb’s 2017 formal policy does indicate that the extension collates anonymous data. But what Heaton is protesting is the identifier that the extension attaches to the said information before it’s sent to the company servers. He said this leaves the account holder vulnerable to hackers.

    SimilarWeb has already denied these allegations and claimed that they are “not aware of and cannot determine the identity of the users from whom the non-personal information is collected.”

    Google and Mozilla have since removed the extension from its Chrome and FireFox browsers. The former has not explained its decision to cut off Stylish while the latter said that they blocked the extension due to violation of data practices.

    Users utilizing Stylish on their web browsers would no longer be able to access its features. However, the extension remains active online.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox Leaked Facebook User Data Caused by Browser Vulnerability

    Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox Leaked Facebook User Data Caused by Browser Vulnerability

    Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox might have inadvertently leaked the Facebook usernames, profile pictures and even the likes of their users because of a side-channel vulnerability.

    A side-channel vulnerability was discovered in a CSS3 feature dubbed the “mix-blend-mode.” This allowed a hacker to discover the identity of a Facebook account holder using Chrome or Firefox by getting them to visit a specially-designed website.

    This critical flaw was discovered in 2017 by security researchers Dario Weißer and Ruslan Habalov and also by independent researcher Max May.

    The researchers created a proof-of-concept (POC) exploit to show how the vulnerability could be misused. Weißer and Habalov’s concept showed how they were able to visually harvest data like username, profile picture, and “like” status of a user. What’s more, this insidious hack could be accomplished in the background when the user visits a malicious website.

    The visual leak could happen on sites using iFrames that connect to Facebook in via login buttons and social plugins. Due to a security feature called the “same-origin policy,” sites can’t directly access iFrame content. But the researchers were able to get the information by developing an overlay on the cross-origin iFrame in order to work with the underlying pixels.

    It took Habalov and Weißer’s POC about 20 seconds to get the username and about five minutes to create a vague copy of the profile picture. The program also took about 500 milliseconds to check the “like” status. Keep in mind, however, that for this vulnerability to work, the user should be logged into their Facebook account.

    Habalov and Weißer privately notified both Google and Mozilla and steps were taken to contain the threat. Google was able to fix the flaw on their end when version 63 was released last December. On Firefox’s end, a patch was made available 14 days ago with the release of the browser’s version 60. The delay was due to the researchers’ late disclosure of their findings to Mozilla.

    IE and Edge browsers weren’t exposed to the side-channel exploit as they don’t support the needed feature. Safari was also safe from the flaw.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Firefox Moves Closer to Password-Free Browsers

    Firefox Moves Closer to Password-Free Browsers

    On Wednesday, Mozilla released its Firefox 60 browser, moving a step closer to password-free login for several websites. Equipped with WebAuthn, this new standard in authentication technology does away with several passwords to reduce phishing attacks.

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and FIDO Alliance jointly developed WebAuthn, which has been years in the making. It is a secure login standard that relies on physical authentication devices, such as biometrics and USB tokens, instead of passwords to grant website access. That’s because reliance on passwords has been identified as one of the “weakest links” in web security.

    Passwords have been the de facto method of logging in anywhere on the Internet. However, it gets problematic when login credentials are re-used on multiple websites. And even with combinations of characters, uppercase and numbers, passwords often do not provide sufficient cybersecurity. Using phishing scams, criminals have resorted to creating fake websites to weasel out login details and personal information from unsuspecting users.

    Tech experts pointed out that passwords will still be relevant, and a post-password future is still far from happening. Fortunately, WebAuthn is a nudge towards making sites more secure and resistant to data breaches and password theft.

    Physical authentication keys are nothing new as numerous tech firms with the need for tight cybersecurity already have their own drivers in place. The type of authentication is currently implemented on Google and Facebook and allows easy login through a YubiKey token. As an open-source code with commonly available libraries, WebAuthn lets other developers implement password-free logins across the web.   

    Although Mozilla is the first to come out with the WebAuthn support, Google and Microsoft will add the function to their updated flagship browsers in the coming months. The move is expected to be an improvement to web authentication, compared to prior attempts. Moreover, WebAuthn is capable of supporting older authentication hardware so early adopters don’t have to go back to square one.

  • Mozilla Launches Firefox Quantum, Poses Real Threat to Google Chrome

    Mozilla Launches Firefox Quantum, Poses Real Threat to Google Chrome

    Mozilla has been quietly sitting on the sidelines for a while now, content to slowly work on improving Firefox. But the release of the Firefox Quantum shows that the company is now ready to join the big league once again and take on Google’s Chrome.

    Mozilla unveiled the new and improved version 57 of Firefox on Tuesday, claiming that the browser is now twice as fast as before. The company also revealed a new user interface (UI) that looks decidedly minimalist.

    According to Mozilla executive Mark Mayo, the latest update is the biggest one they’ve rolled out since the company launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004. It’s also the apex of six years worth of research and development, as well as engineering work that ran for about a year and a half.

    The Firefox Quantum touts a revamped rendering engine along with a new CSS layout engine. The engine and other components are written in Rust, a programming language developed by Mozilla’s own research group with the goal of increasing speed. Mozilla also claims that Quantum uses 30% less memory than Chrome and that it has been designed to meet the needs of people who surf the internet by switching from various tabs.

    Firefox’s release notes also listed changes in active tab prioritization, a switch-over from legacy add-ons to those developed via the WebAssembly API, and Pocket integration. The reworked browser is also sporting a new UI, its first redesign since Firefox 4. The changes in the browser’s UI and UX (user experience) puts significant emphasis on giving it a speed boost.

    It’s clear that the new UI compliments the austere look that rivals Edge and Chrome sport. Firefox Quantum integrates the search and address bars in a bid to reduce the clutter usually found on top of the window. A revamped new tab page was also revealed.  

    Users in Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the U.S, also quickly noticed that Mozilla has foregone using Yahoo as its default search engine. Instead, the company has reverted back to using Google, its partner and main financier before the two companies had a falling out in 2014. However, Firefox will continue using its default search engine in other countries. For instance, China will still be using Baidu while Belarus and Russia will continue using Yandex.

    Mozilla is hoping that the changes Firefox Quantum carries will be more than enough to challenge Chrome and other browsers. But it’s admittedly an uphill battle at the moment. However, Firefox’s stance to be tech neutral and the groundwork it has laid down can make Mozilla’s bid to return to the top easier.

    [Featured image via Mozilla]

  • Mozilla Firefox Announces End to Support for Windows XP and Vista

    Mozilla Firefox Announces End to Support for Windows XP and Vista

    Pretty soon, you’ll stop receiving updates for your Firefox browser if you’re running Windows XP or Vista. Mozilla recently announced that it will be dropping support for the two platforms by next year.

    In a company blog post, Mozilla announced that it plans to drop support for its Firefox browser for users running on the two operating systems after June 2018.  “As one of the few browsers that continues to support Windows XP and Vista, Firefox users on these platforms can expect security updates until that date,” the company explained, adding that “users do not need to take additional action to receive those updates.”

    Microsoft retired support for XP in April 2014 while Vista was retired in April 2017. This means that Microsoft no longer gives security updates for the two outdated operating systems but third-party developers like Firefox can still continue to support their products running on the two platforms.

    Last year, Mozilla announced that they have moved users still running on Windows XP and Vista to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR). This means that Firefox users running on the outdated Microsoft operating systems still be safe until June 26, 2018, since ESR version 52 will still receive a scheduled updated on May 1, 2018, according to ComputerWorld. The next security update after that is already scheduled on June 26, 2018, which will no longer include support for XP and Vista users.

    Thus, Mozilla is urging the affected users to upgrade to newer versions of Windows supported by Microsoft. Running on the unsupported operating systems is unsafe especially since they already have known vulnerabilities that may be exploited.

    Mozilla has not released the figures on how many Firefox users are still using the outdated Microsoft systems. However, Net Applications said that the combined Vista and XP users only form 6.12 percent of the total market share, a figure deemed low enough to justify discontinuing Mozilla’s support.

    [Featured Image via Mozilla]

  • Firefox for iOS Now Available To All

    Firefox for iOS Now Available To All

    Mozilla announced that its Firefox browser is now available for iOS worldwide. It supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices.

    The browser made its iOS debut in September in New Zealand, but has now expanded to everywhere else.

    Mozilla says in a blog post:

    Firefox for iOS lets you take your favorite browser with you wherever you go with the Firefox features you already love including smart and flexible search, intuitive tab management, syncing with Firefox Accounts and Private Browsing.

    You can use Firefox Accounts to sync your browsing history, tabs and passwords and bring bookmarks from your other devices to Firefox for iOS.

    It includes search suggestions, visual tabs, and a private browsing option. As the company notes, for easy access, you can add the browser to the dock at the bottom of your home screen.

    As others have pointed out, Firefox had to run the WebKit rendering engine instead of its own Gecko Engine to get on iOS as it’s the only one Apple will allow.

    You can currently find Firefox in the App Store.

    Image via Mozilla

  • Yahoo Search Gets Overhaul on Firefox

    Yahoo Search Gets Overhaul on Firefox

    Yahoo announced that it’s giving Firefox users in the U.S. a new desktop search experience. This includes a redesigned header and more prominent image and video results.

    The design will be especially noticeable when users search for famous people and movies. They’ll see a strip of related videos and images across the top of the page.

    “Taking a page from our redesigned Yahoo mobile search experience, Yahoo Search in Firefox delivers the most relevant results upfront so that you can take action right away,” says Mason Ng, VP of Search Distribution at Yahoo.

    Also on display will be movie info from IMDb, movie times and ticket purchasing from Fandango, listening/purchasing from iTunes, photos/reviews from Yelp and TripAdvisor, stats from Yahoo Sports, and personalized Flickr results in image search, which was actually announced separately the other day, and applies across browsers.

    “We have accomplished a lot over the last year,” says Mozilla’s Denelle Dixon-Thayer. “We worked closely with Yahoo to improve the search experience for our U.S. users. And, while we tend to be an opinionated and passionate project, Yahoo has been collaborative and flexible as we’ve provided continual feedback. Ultimately, these advances in the experience improve the competitive landscape for search which is good for our users.”

    The new design is rolling out on Firefox on Windows, Mac, and Linux in the U.S.

    As you probably know, Yahoo has an agreement with Firefox that puts it as the default search experience in the browser. Ever since then, Yahoo has tried to push users to that browser. To this day, Yahoo still displays an “Upgrade to the new Firefox” message at the top of its home page in other browsers.

    Images via Yahoo

  • Firefox Welcomes Extensions From Other Browsers

    Firefox Welcomes Extensions From Other Browsers

    Mozilla announced some big developer news for Firefox on Friday with the introduction of the WebExtensions API, which is compatible with Chrome and Opera so developers can create extensions that work across multiple browsers.

    Mozilla says it hears from developers that they want add-on development to be more like web development in that the same code should run on multiple browsers based on standards with “comprehensive documentation”. Mozilla’s Kev Needham writes:

    To this end, we are implementing a new, Blink-compatible API in Firefox called WebExtensions. Extension code written for Chrome, Opera, or, possibly in the future, Microsoft Edge will run in Firefox with few changes as a WebExtension. This modern and JavaScript-centric API has a number of advantages, including supporting multi-process browsers by default and mitigating the risk of misbehaving add-ons and malware.

    WebExtensions will behave like other Firefox add-ons; they will be signed by Mozilla, and discoverable through addons.mozilla.org (AMO) or through the developer’s website. With this API, extension developers should be able to make the same extension available on Firefox and Chrome with a minimal number of changes to repackage for each platform.

    WebExtensions is available in preview release for Firefox 42, which is on Developer Edition. You can find info about testing the API here.

    In addition to this, Mozilla is introducing what it calls a “safer and faster” multi-process version of Firefox with Electrolysis. It is also requiring all extensions to be validated and signed by Mozilla starting in Firefox 41.

    They’ll be deprecating XPCOM- and XUL-based add-ons. More on all of this here.

    Image via Mozilla

  • Yahoo Said To Show Google Results Instead Of Bing In Firefox

    Well, this is odd.

    Yahoo is reportedly displaying search results – both organic and paid – that are powered by Google when some users search using Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. That is according to Aaron Wall at SEOBook, who has screenshots comparing the usual Bing-powered version of results and the Google-powered ones.

    It’s completely unclear just how widespread this is occurring, whether it’s just a test, or whether this is something more users can expect to see.

    According to Wall, it’s only happening in some versions of Firefox. I’ve tested the most recent update to the browser on Mac, as well as Chrome and Safari, and have been unable to produce a Google–powered search results page by performing a Yahoo search. It’s all Bing for me so far. For the record, I did this using the “seo tools” query that Wall displays in his screenshots.

    It’s been an interesting period for search engines powering other services. There have been a lot of changes in the past year, and things are starting to get a bit convoluted.

    As you probably know, Yahoo and Microsoft have had a search and advertising partnership in place for many years. This came about after a Yahoo Google deal fell apart over antitrust concerns. Over the years, it became apparent that Yahoo wasn’t incredibly happy with the arrangement – particularly since ex-Googler Marissa Mayer took over as CEO.

    Earlier this year, however, the two companies amended their agreement. While some expected them to part ways, the companies decided to stay together, but under terms that are largely better for Yahoo, which gets increased flexibility to enhance its own search experience on any platform. The partnership is non-exclusive for both desktop and mobile. Yahoo will continue to serve Bing ads and search results for “most” (51%) of its desktop search traffic, it said, and can do whatever it wants on mobile.

    It can also do whatever it wants with that other 49% of desktop, which is presumably where these Google-powered results come in. We haven’t heard anything about any kind of arrangement between Yahoo and Google (who are already battling for the loyalty of Firefox users), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an arrangement.

    In fact, the companies have expressed interest in working with one another even since Mayer has been running Yahoo. We’ve reached out to both companies for comment, and will update accordingly.

    Late last year, Mozilla and Yahoo announced a partnership that sees Yahoo take over the default search experience in Firefox in the U.S. – a spot that used to belong to Google. Since then, both Google and Yahoo have been employing various tactics to get users to select their respective search engines as their defaults.

    In the most aggressive instance of this yet, Yahoo entered a partnership with Oracle to prompt those downloading Java updates on Chrome and Internet Explorer to switch to Yahoo. This is a big deal considering that Java is the most popular programming language and Java software is reportedly installed on 89% of desktop computers.

    Making the search landscape even more complicated, this week also saw the announcement of a new long-term deal between Microsoft and AOL, which sees Bing taking over the Google-powered spot for AOL, which is now owned by Verizon.

    Update: Search Engine Land got a statement from Yahoo: “As we work to create the absolute best experiences for Yahoo users, from time to time, we run small tests with a variety of partners including search providers. There is nothing further to share at this time.”