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| == Firefox Long-Term Themes/Goals Discussion ==
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| ''Discussion document for identifying long-term areas of focus for market research and data collection efforts for Firefox, and short-term identification of target differentiation vectors.'' | | ''Discussion document for identifying long-term areas of focus for market research and data collection efforts for Firefox, and short-term identification of target differentiation vectors.'' |
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| '''Microformat Detection and Application/Service Linking'''
| | Please try to adhere to the following structure if possible: |
| | * the name of the theme, just to act as a label |
| | * why the investigation is worth the time and effort |
| | * what the scope of investigation should be (long term? immediate?) |
| | * the questions that need investigating |
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| * Detecting [http://microformats.org/about/ microformated] information ([http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard hCard], [http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar hCalendar], etc.) and linking this information to actions, applications, and services.
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| * Momentum is growing around microformats, and Mozilla has an opportunity to take a leadership position for the emergence of semantic information on the Web. Yahoo! is starting to [http://ylocalblog.com/blog/2006/06/21/we-now-support-microformats/ support] microformats on the following web properties:
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| <ul>
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| * [http://local.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Local] fully supports the hCalendar, hCard, and hReview microformats on almost all business listings, search results, events, and reviews.
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| * [http://www.flickr.com/ Flickr] supports XFN and hCard on all profile pages, and [http://www.upcoming.org/ Upcoming.org] supports hCalendar.
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| * [http://tech.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Tech] uses the hReview microformat for all product reviews.
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| </ul>
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| * Support for microformats could include the ability to:
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| * export microformated content to desktop applications, (see [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2240/ Tails Export])
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| * send microformated content to online services (an employee from Upcoming.org modified an open-source Greasemonkey user script to [http://upcoming.org/tools/microformats/ycalhcal.user.js add any hCalendar event to Yahoo! Calendar])
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| * or to provide contextual actions for identified content such as generating a new mail message from an hCard link.
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| </ul>
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| | '''THEME: Just what are our users doing with our product?''' |
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| '''Increase the value and utility of the information individuals encounter and gather while using the Web''' | | ''Why it's important:'' The Firefox charter states that the browser should be serving the majority audience in their online tasks, but there is no recent data (especially since the Web 2.0 explosion) showing what users are actually doing online. It's easy to make assumptions based on personal and peer group experience, but those results skew to our own user bases. |
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| * Improve the quality and quantity of the information that is automatically accumulated while a user is on the Web.
| | ''Scope:'' immediate & long-term |
| <ul>
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| * The browser already caches web page history, but we could extend this metaphor to include other types of tagged content such as [http://microformats.org/about/ microformats] (see above).
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| * Improve the user's ability to expand or restrict what information is automatically accumulated by the browser.
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| </ul>
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| * Provide an ability to for users to explicitly save and tag this information, similar to bookmarking.
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| * Increase the value of this information by improving the tools for viewing, searching, manipulating, analyzing, and combining the information a user gathers.
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| * Further increase the value of this information improving the tools for sharing the information a user gathers, and for combining this information with other users' information.
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| * Give developers new tools to extend the value, functionality, and utility of the user's information.
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| * Allow users to easily sync their information between computers or devices.
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| | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| | * who are our users, and how much are they doing online? |
| | * what's the average user:browser profile ratio? |
| | * what sort of tasks are they doing online? |
| | * what do they want to be able to do more of online? |
| | * what is the relative usage per type of online task? |
| | * what kind of websites do they visit? |
| | * how many unique websites do they visit? |
| | * what percentage of time is spent visiting new websites as opposed to returning to previously viewed sites? |
| | * how are users collaborating and sharing online? |
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| '''Put users in control of their personal information'''
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| Goal: Enable users to track the distribution of their personal information
| | '''THEME: Making the browser disappear''' |
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| ''Store the information that users submit to web sites in their history'' | | Why it's important: The best kind of tool is one that becomes a natural extension of the individual. We should aspire to entirely |
| | disappear from the user's conscious view and just be an extension of themselves. |
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| ''Enable users to easily search their history to answer questions like:'' | | ''Scope:'' immediate |
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| * "Who should I notify about my new cell phone number?" | | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| * "Did I really mistype my address when I placed that order?" | | * what are the most common user annoyances with web browsers? |
| | * how do web browsers and web applications conflict in terms of UI? |
| | * where does Firefox interrupt instead of assist common user taskflows? |
| | * what UI/tools/features are not used or needed in the product? |
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| Goal: Enable users to put Firefox into a state in which no information is recorded locally about their actions on the Web
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| * Feature of Safari in OS
| | '''THEME: What is the competitive landscape for web browsers?''' |
| * Firefox extension named Stealther
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| | ''Why it's important:'' The choice our users will have to make is, "why Firefox?", so we should understand the factors on which they will be basing that decision. Getting into feature wars is uninteresting, but understanding long term competitive strategies is a must. |
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| '''Partner - Customized Distributions''' | | ''Scope:'' immediate & long-term |
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| * Easier creation of more deeply customized Firefox packages. | | ''Questions to answer:'' |
| * PC OEMs for gamers, businesses, home users, entertainment, students, etc. | | * what is the emerging strategy of our competitors? |
| * Allow network admins at businesses to easily provide the browser installation and settings they need. | | * what features are they developing? |
| | * what is their messaging? |
| | * who are they partnering with? |
| | * how does the strategy of OS vendors affect the web browser and our ability to compete? |
| | <ul> |
| | * what OS integration points can they leverage (security, desktop search)? |
| | * what desktop application integrations can they leverage (MS Office, Apple iLife)? |
| | * what online service integrations can they leverage (Windows Live, .mac)? |
| | * what browser runtime platforms can they integrate with their tools offerings (WinFX + Visual Studio)? |
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| | </ul> |
| | * what "costs" must a user endure to use Firefox relative to competitive offerings? |
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| '''Enhance support for 3rd Party Service Providers'''
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| * One thing that makes Firefox 2 different is support for third party providers: web feed readers and phishing black lists.
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| * Investigate Web mail and calendaring hooks, syncing with del.icio.us or Google with a simple URL (by partnership with them) for Bookmarks, develop a similar technology like Google Browser Sync for business clients to store the data on a central server or so.
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| | '''THEME: Improving a user's security while online.''' |
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| '''Make a user's Web experiences safer and more secure''' | | ''Why it's important:'' Identity theft and phishing are getting a lot of attention in the technical press, and last year saw several studies showing that SSL indicators weren't being properly interpreted by users. |
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| * Better inform users when they are at risk through warnings, audits, etc.
| | ''Scope:'' immediate |
| * Heuristic methods for anti-phishing
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| * Extension permissions model?
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| * Single sign on technologies (user centric identity, sxip, infocard)
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| | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| | * what are the emerging standards for website authentication (i.e. user centric identity, sxip, infocard)? |
| | * what are the current levels of awareness about online scams? |
| | * what are the current trust/authentication indicators and why are they failing? |
| | * what are the primary vectors of attack for web scams? |
| | * what are the primary vectors of attack for malware? |
| | * what are the rates of attack, and how are attacks trending over time? |
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| '''Make it easier for users to produce Web content'''
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| * What extent can enhancements or changes in the browser encourage users to become authors on the web?
| | '''THEME: Improving a user's privacy and control over personal information''' |
| * What are the barriers to entry to becoming a web participant, and not just a web consumer?
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| | ''Why it's important:'' Placeholder text |
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| '''Make it easier for users to interact and collaborate on the Web''' | | ''Scope:'' immediate |
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| * One common thread between all the "web 2.0" sites is that they allow sharing and discussion by the people they serve. It would be interesting to examine how enhancements to the browser could enhance this sharing system (perhaps browser support for open authentication mechanisms like OpenID would prove helpful, for example). | | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| | * what privacy features are other browser vendors providing to keep information from being recorded locally? |
| | * what user/groups schemes are currently in use by applications or online services? |
| | * are there ways to allow users to track the distribution of a user's personal information? |
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| '''Make it easier for users to customize and control their experiences on the Web''' | | '''THEME: WS-* SOAs, remixable APIs and web applications''' |
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| * This can be extended by Per Site Preferences (Just an example) or a Download Manager/Accelerator.
| | Why it's important: Over the past year the web has become more and more about online applications and services, and recently a lot of remixing of those services has heralded the promise of the "Service Oriented Architecture". Understanding how service remixing, especially user-generated, will affect the web will keep us prepared for the next paradigm shift. |
| * Better support for advanced UI features like notification icons (the famous system tray), alert bubbles, shell integration and the like.
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| | ''Scope:'' long-term |
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| '''Allow users to easily partition their web experience''' | | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| | | * with more available APIs and light- and heavy-weight service oriented architectures, how popular will service remixing become? |
| * Visually expose the current profile | | * what APIs are being currently developed? |
| * Easy switching between profiles
| | * what APIs are predicted to be developed in the future? |
| | | * what are the predicted effects on various Firefox stakeholders? |
| | | * what are the predicted effects on web content creators? |
| '''Make browser technology more transparent so users spend less time thinking about the tool and more time just using the Web'''
| | * One thing that makes Firefox 2 different is support for third party providers: web feed readers and phishing black lists. |
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| * Having delightful or friendly mechanisms to interact with the browser | |
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| '''Blurring of the lines between what is the web and what is a native application'''
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| * I should be able to browse to a new "Firefox Native" enabled site, decide that it is valuable, and click an "Install" button to have it appear in the Start menu or on the Dock just like any other application. | |
| * Local application hosting? | |
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| '''Allow users to "install" domain-specific views/visualizations/handling of information'''
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| * Domain-specific apps have the opporunity to categorize and present specific kinds of web data to the user in much more usable ways. | |
| * For example, Songbird and Democracy. | |
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| '''Make Firefox features more discoverable'''
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| * Deliver a tutorial for key Firefox features
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| ** References
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| ***[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/tour/interface/index.html Internet Explorer 7 tutorial]
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| **** Comments
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| *** [http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/ Safari feature page] and [http://www.apple.com/macosx/theater/safari.html demo video]
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| **** Comments
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| *** Reference: [http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/ Opera]
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| **** Comments: This is more like, what a tutorial [http://operawatch.com/news/2006/06/writing-a-grandma-friendly-opera-browser-tutorial.html shouldn't be]: long, boring, no visual contents.
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| * Deliver an "assistant" (don't think clippy, think simple dialogs and overlays) that introduces to UI elements like the anti-phishing balloon, for other features like microsummaries, search plugins, web feeds, places, themes, extensions, etc.
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| | '''THEME: Making use of rich metadata''' |
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| | Why it's important: More and more metadata is available (Microformats, RDF, RDF/A, CC info, attributions, etc.) yet systems aren't taking advantage of it. Being able to react intelligently to this metadata would make the web browser a more personal and useful tool for users. |
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| '''Other - More Feature Focused Areas''' | | ''Scope:'' immediate and long-term |
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| * Advanced Tabbed Browsing - Better Tab Heuristics: Open links from Tab next to the Tab instead of at the end of the Tab Bar. Re-Arrange Tabs Opened from Links: A[3][2][1]BC -> A[1][2][3]. Should be enabled by default.
| | ''Questions to investigate:'' |
| * Advanced Tabbed Browsing - Allow Tabbed Browsing in Groups: Window in Window kind of feature. Ability to split window vertically/horizontally so that each 'split' can have its own set of tabs with the ability to drag and drop tabs from one split to the other.
| | * what are the most frequently occuring kinds of metadata available? |
| Reference: [http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3431/tabgroupsht5.png Maxthon 2]
| | * what other metadata exist, though not in any formal specification? |
| * Download Manager - Ability to restore downloads across sessions. | | * in what ways is the browser most frequently considered by users to be "dumb" when not reacting to metadata? |
| * Reduced memory | | * what tools exist for leveraging metadata and acting upon it? |
| * More consistent data types. There are a whole bunch of data models in Mozilla (JavaScript, variants, mozStorage, RDF, etc.) and they aren't particularly compatible. | | * why did the semantic web never take off? |
| * Hierarchical extension dependency support
| | * how does collecting data conflict with privacy concerns? |
| * Better support for multi-threading | | * what are the emerging standards for metadata handling? |
| * Improved RDF support | |
| * Native support for PDF | |
| * Support for ODF | |
| * Image zoom
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| * Printing improvements
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| * Download manager: pause/resume, find files, bittorrent as protocol?
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