Firefox is the most popular open source browser on the market but that just isn’t good enough for the folks at Mozilla.  Their developers have discovered that only about 50% of the people that download try it and of those, half of them stick with it the others, presumably move back to using something else, most likely Internet Explorer.

I’m slightly confused as to why someone would download a program and not bother to try it but I’m not in tune with that segment of the population and I’ve long given up trying to understand their ways.

At any rate, Mozilla wants to attract new users and keep them.  Currently, it is working on a new support/feedback site that it thinks will assist the novice Firefox user.  The download and first run pages that will have more instructions.

The development side will see tighter integration of plugins, user interface enhancements among which will include making add-ons easier to manage.  The Firefox icon is also to be changed to make it more obvious that it’s a web browser.

This may well attract new and novice users but due to all the handholding may drive away existing users (or should I say, advanced users, like myself).  As long as it doesn’t overdo the handholding aspect or allows you to run Firefox in a “basic” or “advanced” mode then everyone will be happy.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 1:13 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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