This product vision statement is intended to guide the evolution of Firefox over the next couple of years. Feedback and questions can be added to the discussion page or sent to the mozilla.dev.planning newsgroup.

Firefox product vision statement

Mozilla is uniquely positioned to deliver experiences that put the needs of the user first, above profits and without the need to use personal data from users. The world needs us, and expects us, to lead the way. Our mission for Firefox reflects Mozilla's unique perspective: Firefox should allow users to:

Discover, experience and connect with apps, websites and people on your own terms, everywhere.

Discover

Historically, the Web browser provides Web navigation tools: typed URLs, links, and the back button. More recently, the discovery of new websites and content has largely been taken over by search engines and by social interactions, such as receiving links from others. The browser has evolved little to help users with discovery.

Firefox will become a more active participant in understanding user intent, and be an honest broker that helps make discoveries without regard to commercial interests.

Search

Search is the most popular implementation of taking a user from intent to information or an activity. Firefox should do more to assist users when searching the Web.

Apps

Firefox will help users discover new apps, including Firefox extensions and personas. This discovery may take place through stores, directories, automatic detection, or being informed of app availability by web content.

Social

Social information is increasingly important in how we navigate the Web. Other people send us content, sites, and apps by email, social networks, instant messaging, SMS, and print media. Firefox should use these sources and communication channels to gain an understanding of who that user trusts and aid in future discovery.

Experience

Firefox should support the best possible user experience for web applications on all our device types and operating systems.

Web platform capabilities

Developers should be able to easily build features which are available on traditional computers, tablets, and smartphones, on multiple operating systems. Firefox will provide key capabilities expected by web developers: multi-touch interactions, user notifications, audio and video, real-time communications, beautiful typography, 2D and 3D graphics, and more.

Apps experience on desktop and mobile

After apps have been discovered, Firefox will present and organize apps for users. Firefox will simplify its current system of organizing web apps and web sites, including history, bookmarks, tabs, windows, tab groups.

Developer tools

Firefox will help developers as they build, test, debug, deploy and manage their web sites and web applications, similar to the development and app store ecosystem for developing and distributing native applications.

Connect

Firefox will help users manage their interactions with other people, websites, and web applications.

How people connect with each other - our social interactions

Firefox should play a key role in helping user to share their web experiences with others. Firefox will help users share freely without compromising their privacy. It will help users avoid unsafe practices such as sharing their social network passwords or email account information with untrusted web sites.

Connecting with sites and apps - sharing information about ourselves

People share information about themselves with websites and apps. Firefox will help users to share only the information that the website or app needs, and that the user feels comfortable sharing. Firefox should play a powerful and consistent role in mediating data exchange on behalf of the user.

How developers connect with their customers

Developers have gotten a lot of well-known benefits from the app model, but it has also driven a wedge between them and their customers. Gatekeepers decide whether their apps and/or content is "worthy", and take a significant portion of revenues. Firefox will promote an app ecosystem that enables developers to connect directly with their customers, subject to our principles of user control.

On your own terms

Firefox users will have control over their experience. They shuold be able to personalize their experience without being required to share private data. Firefox will protect users' privacy and security. Users can control their online identity, including what information about themselves they share with sites and people.

Personal, comfortable and fun

Firefox allows personalization with add-ons and personas. It should also use browser history to infer intent, which remains personal to you and your browser, as opposed to shared with large entities by default. And it's important that the end result of all this is fun and satisfying.

Independent identity

Mozilla must lead the way to an identity system that is under the user's control, independent of any particular service provider, using existing identity services where appropriate. Users should be able to share information about themselves selectively and easily, rather than sharing a lot about themselves to receive little in return.

Privacy by design

Firefox will abide by the principles of No Surprises, Real Choices, Sensible Settings, Limited Data and User Control.

Everywhere

The full Firefox browser will continue to be available on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Android. The next wave of internet users will primarily be using mobile devices: in order to keep its impact, Firefox will have a significant impact on Android-based phones and tablets.

Provide a Firefox experience on major platforms

On platforms such as iOS where we aren't allowed to provide a full Firefox experience, we still can and should help people live online life on their own terms. We will explore Web-based and other architectures to provide a Firefox experience to everyone.

Give people access to their personal experience, anywhere

With Sync, Firefox has taken its first step toward providing a personalized experience from multiple devices. As people access the Web from many places, they will need and expect their personal experiences to be available everywhere.