Mozilla’s current CEO, Mitchell Baker, announced on her blog that she will be stepping down. Moving up the ladder is John Lilly, the former Chief Operating Office (COO), who will be fulfilling the duties previously assigned to Baker. From what it sounds like, however, Baker will remain as an active leader in the organization:
I will remain an active and integral part of MoCo. I’ve been involved in shipping Mozilla products since the dawn of time, and have no intention of distancing myself from our products or MoCo. I’ll remain both as the Chairman of the Board and as an employee. My focus will shift towards the kinds of activities described above, but I’ll remain deeply engaged in MoCo activities.
News of the change in roles comes just a little after Mozilla decided to yank a viral website they had posted earlier. The website outlined nearly 1,700 stats for things Firefox users were more/less likely to do than Internet Explorer users. The site, fightagainstboredom.com, was seen as offensive and quickly taken down. Lucky for us a Google Cache of the site was still available and here was some of the text I was able to grab:
Statistics show that Firefox Users are more inclined to have rich, exciting experiences on the web and in everyday life. Others, however, find themselves paralyzed by the death grip of boredom. It’s not their fault. Many are good people who simply got off to a bad start. It’s our duty to show them that the numbers can be in their favor. So spread the word because hope of a more interesting life is only a download away.
Data from Nielsen Online, @Plan, Fall 2007 Release. “Firefox Users” are defined as individuals in the Online 18+ audience who say Firefox is their primary browser. “Internet Explorer Users” are those who use IE as their primary browser
The list of 1,700 items was way too long to post here, but we have uploaded a screenshot of them all for those of you interested. Here are also some highlights from the comparison of Firefox users to Internet Explorer users:
Firefox users are …
- 15% more likely to have watched cartoons on TV within the last seven days.
- 20% more likely to have Dandruff.
- 153% more likely to have purchased adventure games for their computer at home in the last year.
- 243% more likely to have used Google Spreadsheets in the last 30 days.
- 55% more likely to have used their computer to watch streaming video yesterday.
- 7% less likely to play casino video games.
- 102% more likely to have built or updated a web page within the last day.
- 7% less likely to have watched HBO on TV within the last 7 days.
- 189% more likely to have played a multiplayer console game online within the last day.
UPDATE: Someone pointed out that I missed one of the biggest reasons the site was pulled. As it turned out some of the stats they were reporting were in regards to users’ health, such as “38% less likely to live with others suffering from breast cancer”. Some of the users who actually had cancer, as expected, were upset by this.
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Very interesting read indeed. will reserve my comments till i have gone through the whole list. And yea i can see from where the charge of being offensive is coming from.
Firefox collects all of this information on its’ users? Talk about the ultimate in spyware!
It seems that, after all this time, some are still trying to revive the Firefox religion. God damn, it’s a browser, not a way of life. And they comissioned Nielsen to do that? Most stupid way to burn money ever.
Someone from the company actually came up with such a site!!!
I mean the organization
I don’t see this as a new revival of the “FF=religion” movement. To me it just seems like some general stereotypes about nerds…
Just stick with creating great software, Mozilla. The people will come.
They aren’t actually collecting the information from Firefox users. Instead they were surveyed I’m sure.
That was kind of my thought as well. Keep everything open source and the users will do the marketing for you.