Convergence Conversation

What is a browser?

What is a browser? Sounds like an odd question at first, but just consider the range and diversity of Internet connected devices today, and the plethora we might expect in coming years. Consider our growing expectations of what a browser can manage in terms of multimedia (natively?). Consider the implications of desktop widgets and Web services. Consider the incredible variety of applications a browser must facilitate.

Lastly, but most critically from my perspective, consider whether you wish the browser to be open or proprietary. Do you want a for-profit company to dictate the long-term definition of a browser? To determine for the rest of us what is and isn't possible?

We're fortunate today to have Mozilla Firefox. An open browser developed by the Web community for the Web community. A safer browser. A browser pioneering user-friendly innovation. A browser without which we'd all have little choice but to use IE 5.5 (it's widely recognised that Microsoft only restarted development of IE after a five year break because of Firefox).

Our UK team just launched Firefox 3 to the UK market, and we were delighted to be out last night with Tristan Nitot, President, Mozilla Europe, and British supporters of Firefox to celebrate. And Tristan collected a certificate from The Guiness Book of Records for the most software downloads in 24 hours - 8,002,530!

Why not start browsing with Firefox today if you haven't already. It's a better browser , and it feels good to adopt an open browser too! Moreover, just because Firefox is going great guns today, doesn't mean we can take having the option of an open browser for granted; or an open Web come to that... but that's a topic for another post I feel.