Firefox/Projects/Firefox Start

Instead of loading Firefox Start from the network, use a locally hosted web application that provides the same functionality but offers greater potential for user control & customization, as well as engagement and interaction between Mozilla and users.

• Proposed by: beltzner, cbeard
• Project lead: mak
• Project members: mak, beltzner, cbeard, limi, justin

Status

Shipped in Beta 5 - need to improve styling, implement snippet support.

Next steps

• restyle with updated logos and look to match Google.com
• retrieve snippets from mozilla hosted service
• create a site to host test snippets on

Goals

• locally hosted page with
• no chrome privilege required
• some form of offline experience
• control/customization of search engine used
• ability to display user engagement messages from mozilla.com servers
• do all of the above in a scalable and measurable way
• track performance and conversion of each snippet

Non Goals

• ability to perform history/cache searches when offline
• option to use Google-hosted Firefox Start page
• For the initial implementation will not feature any dynamic content like history/bookmark lookups.
• segment on anything other than locale, geo, version, or OS
• understand the impressions of each snippet

Timeline / Milestones

Phase 1 : locally hosted replacement

• host local HTML/JS/CSS content (done)
• ensure search codes remained consistent with existing page (localization, geoip/load balancing redirects)(partially done)
  
• ensure cookies are not sent when page loads
  
• ensure client ships with default set of snippets for initial offline support

Phase 2 : add dynamism, offline support

• allow search engine to be modified based on Search Box selection follow-up, perf hog due to content priv.
• add dynamic snippet delivery and display (partially done)
  
• add offline detection and messaging
• cdn hosting of snippets
• async fetch of content with analytics on click-through

Phase 3 : bells and whistles (time permitting)

• design changes
• multi-variant testing support
• some local places DB analysis (about:me style stuff)

Timeline TBD

These are the bugs of interest:

Bug & Summary	Owner	Status
bug 563723 - add about:home to mimic Firefox Start	mak	awaiting review
bug 563738 - Add current Mozilla "snippets" in the about:home page	mak	awaiting review
bug 544819 - Bug 544819 - Create a basic Home Tab linking to the current Home Page	nobody	haven't started, waits app tabs

Requirements

• privacy: do not send any data to third party web services when loaded
• performance: benchmark to show performance difference over web-hosted Firefox Start
• performance: don't hit moz servers for every impression
• performance: better offline experience than web-hosted Firefox Start
• metrics: ability to do a/b testing with engagement pieces

Dependencies

• product: talk with Google to arrange a technical contact and to ensure a smooth handoff (beltzner) done
• webdev: engagement pieces to be delivered from mozilla.com service
• fix localStorage bug: it does not allow to set entries for URIs without a host (about: pages have just scheme and path). bug 568091 (done)
• localStorage is main-thread only (IO on another thread is future target though since not really needed for first implementation). (follow-up)
• Use search service engine definitions, inject from chrome context at startup (done)

Design Specification

Visual Design

Sketch and tracking bug coming soon, but essentially:

• increase font size in textbox
• use better version of search service logo
• change layout so that it doesn't look as squooshed
• leave space for snippets more or less where they exist now
• add links to privacy policy, user rights

Snippet Service

A service will be hosted on mozilla.com that will deliver a JSON file that contains HTML, CSS, JS and media content used to create a user-facing "snippet" that will be presented on the Firefox Start page. This snippet will use web technology, including JS, and can be interactive / dynamic as required.

• service endpoint will accept parameters so that snippet can be differentiated based on:
  • client version
  • last client update
  • client host operating system
  • client locale
  • add-ons installed on client
• service will return a single JSON file that contains
  • HTML files
  • CSS files
  • JS files
  • media files (PNG, WEBM, etc)
• service will be able to handle load of being checked once a day by all Firefox clients

Snippet Presentation in Client

The client will store the snippet content on the user's local disk (either as flat file or using appcache / offline storage?) and display it as part of the Firefox Start page in an iframe. The client will update the snippet asynchronously at most once per 24 hour period; any additional rotation/varying of the user facing content will need to be handled by the snippet itself.

• client will check mozilla hosted service at most once per day
• client will download JSON file from mozilla hosted service if update available
• client will unpack resources from JSON file and store locally
• client will render locally stored content in iframe on Firefox Start page

Testing

tbd

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