Content services: Difference between revisions

We are applying more focus than ever before to the long-term sustainability of Mozilla.  That sounds like a fancy way of saying money, and maybe it is.  We want to be making an impact for the next 50 or 100 years, and need to hedge against the idea that desktop search will inevitably deteriorate and can’t be Mozilla’s permanent source of revenue to pursue our mission.

The relationship between money and open source can be strained. But it shouldn't be. It's a tool in the toolbox; there's no need to be overly rigid about it. Participation in the commercial ecosystem is something that we believe is necessary; it's part of our manifesto. We should be very attentive toward what we believe is the right thing to do, and continue having debates about it. But in the end, we need to remember the importance of ensuring Mozilla is sustainable for a very long time.

The Content Services Team was formed in late 2013 to explore opportunities, over time, that would provide additional value to our users, strongly align with our mission and values, and propose new sources of revenue for Mozilla.  

Our initial approach was to look for sites and brands to partner with who could provide our users with content that  on a regular basis.

:Every time a user opens up a new tab in Firefox, the browser displays Tiles. Frequent Firefox users see screenshots of the websites they visit most often in their Tiles. We look to re-imagine what the Tiles can do on the tab pages. There are a few opportunities that we will test in the market in 2014 and the first of which is to provide sponsored content on First-Run-Tiles known as [[Wiktionary:Directory_Tiles|Directory_Tiles]]. This should launch in Q2/3 and we will then work on additional Tile enhancements outside of First-Run.

:We look to roll out a PBS/NPR style web-based video series about our Mozilla biased view of the world. This video series and associated content will go live weekly and be promoted across the Mozilla footprint. We will work with selected underwriters to sponsor this content to generate meaningful revenue.

:UP is our Intent Engine for across Mozilla that helps us deliver personalization platforms for all of our products and services. Our 2014 strategy is to keep building our UP platform to make it available to the desktop, OS, services, and other products and have the bridges built this year that each product team has the ability to read/write to it. We will do limited tests in Q2/3/4 of this year to test different Intent Engine modules (such as tasks, discovery, personalization, ads) to prioritize which modules we commercialize in 2015.

If you’re interested in what we are doing,  we’d love for you to subscribe to our group and contribute to the discussions. We are also actively hiring, so if you’re interested in joining our team, check out Mozilla’s [https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/ Career’s Page] for opportunities. We have lots to talk about in the coming weeks and months!