Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads -- So What's Next?

Mozilla's has just hit a new milestone, reaching its . The big event happened Thursday night, according to the company's .

To be clear, that's 1 billion total downloads since Firefox's 2004 debut -- an atypical type of statistic . Still, if you look at the more standard measures of success, Firefox is showing , while the long-time industry giant continues to slide.

Firefox and the Browser Market

Measuring the first 30 days of July, Firefox holds an average of 30.5 percent of the global browser market, according to data from Web metrics firm . Internet Explorer, on the other hand, sits at 60.12 percent. Safari and Chrome are tied at just over 3 percent, and Opera trails behind at 2.65 percent.

Where those numbers become more significant is in a year-to-year comparison: For the same time period in 2008, Firefox held 26.07 percent of the global browser market, while IE held 68.64 percent. Safari had 3.31 percent, Opera had 1.77 percent, and Chrome -- well, Chrome was back then.

Putting that into perspective, Firefox has grown its userbase by 17 percent, comparing its July '08 and July '09 numbers. IE, in the same comparison, has lost 12.4 percent of its users worldwide. Even the recent release of Internet Explorer 8 for the .

Firefox and the Future

So what happens from here? The one certainty is that the browser market is in a state of flux. Even the smaller alternative browsers are slowly reshaping the playing field: In July of 2008, the alternatives made up only about 5 percent of the market. By July of 2009, with the addition of Chrome, they collectively have 8.67 percent of all worldwide users -- a growth of 70.6 percent from the previous year.

In the big picture, IE maintains an advantage with its default preinstalled placement on Windows computers, as well as with its frequent adoption within the corporate world. The former factor, however, is starting to fade: Microsoft is for the first time shipping versions of , thanks to the surrounding anti-competition laws. That's a significant change.

As for the latter factor -- corporate browser usage -- that may be Firefox's toughest hurdle to overcome. Numerous analyses over the years have identified the enterprise realm . Though the company is taking steps to of its product, many question whether the browser is ready for widespread business adoption.

However it is or isn't being used, what's remained constant with Firefox has been its ongoing growth alongside IE's nonstop drop. , that trend certainly seems to suggest the great browser race is far from finished; the tides, it appears, have plenty more shifting ahead.

Is This the iPhone Nano? I Hope Not

Rumors that Apple is working on an iPhone Nano are spreading -- again. The latest batch of rumors began when an Apple patent was rediscovered.

The patent, which depicts a device with all the features you'd expect, including audio and video play, Wi-Fi, phone, SMS, and a still-image camera, has been seen before. uncovered the same filing just over two years ago. The patent was originally owned by John G. Elias, but is now owned by Apple, according to

Elias is best known as the founder of , the company behind the technology that made the iPhone touch screen possible. FingerWorks was sold to Apple in 2005. In addition to his FingerWorks technology, Elias is reportedly working with Apple on other touch-sensitive devices.

Image courtesy of MacNN

Image courtesy of MacNN

While the idea that Apple may be working on an iPhone Nano is admittedly exciting, there's only word I can think of to sum up the device described in this patent: crazy. If you take a look at the designs, the supposed iPhone Nano would have a simple front-facing display with no touch capacity, while the back of the device would have an iPod-style click wheel and possibly a numeric keypad.

That means you would have to keep your eyes on the front display, while your fingers worked madly to control the device from the backside. If you were working the iPod functions that may not be so bad, because you can use the click wheel without looking at it.

But imagine trying to make a phone call with this thing. If you have a regular phone, turn it around and see if you can dial your own phone number that way. It's a terrible way to work, isn't it? MacNN agrees with my assessment, but is willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt.

In the post, writer Jack Purcher says "knowing Apple, I may just laugh at just how easy it really is with a little bit of practice. Time will tell on that one." We don't need time, Jack, I can tell you right now: This design is nuts. There's just no way that a company like Apple would ever come out with a device like this. It's simply an impractical and counter intuitive solution (if you can even call it a solution).

It may be that Apple is working on an iPhone Nano, but I think the company would be better off just the world is already lusting after. My guess is this iPhone Nano patent is just a safeguard to keep any competitors from coming out with a similar device. As we've seen before, -- and many technology companies, for that matter -- are patent-happy. If you ask me, a device like this will never see the light of day, at least not with an Apple logo on it.

The real question this patent brings up is whether we'll see an iPhone Nano in the future. It's possible, I suppose. But given the fact this iPhone Nano patent has made the blog rounds before, and past about a that have , I wouldn't bet on it.

Intel is Right: Windows 7 Will Succeed

Now here's a prediction you can believe in: , the chief sales and marketing officer for chip maker Intel, that Microsoft's upcoming operating system will be welcomed and adopted by consumers and businesses much more quickly than Vista.

In a story in InformationWeek, Maloney said that Windows 7 will be happily embraced after by millions of users who had heard about Vista's poor compatibility with older printers and other peripherals, and its slow performance.

looks to be "just one big positive" for the marketplace, Maloney said to InformationWeek while making an appearance at Intel's Technology Summit in San Francisco. "This time, we think it will go faster."

I second that emotion. Here's why:

* Even Intel itself shunned Vista last time around. Vista wasn't enough of an improvement over Windows XP; it just wasn't as reliable and well-developed. Intel didn't upgrade some 80,000 of its own workers to Vista from XP because of the issues with the OS, according to a report in last June. To me, that's a very telling move from the world's largest and most popular computer chip maker.

* For whatever reason, there's a pattern with releases of new "improved" versions of Windows being skipped over on a regular basis. Windows 95 was a giant success when it was released, in large part because it truly moved computing forward. It improved on the trusted but less-glitzy and less-polished Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and DOS 6.22

But then came which was a huge dud, with its animated help feature and other nonsense, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me), which was named to PC World's "" list.

The successes, Windows 95 and Windows XP after it, come after waves of expensive embarrassments. It's as though Microsoft brings these things out without enough testing, lets consumers and businesses act as their beta testers, then later saves the day by bringing in the much-needed fixes as a new and improved product. How else can you explain it?

* Maybe Microsoft really, truly believed in all of these operating systems when they created, developed, and released them, but perhaps the company is just so huge that it's lost touch with what consumers and business want. In the lab, maybe those animated dogs and other objects in Bob made perfect sense as a way to help nervous first-time users get acclimated to computers. But did they actually think about using such "innovations" themselves and how ridiculous they would appear?

Some people talk until they are blue in the face about Microsoft being the evil empire that is uncaring about what consumers and businesses want from their computers. I disagree strongly. I think Microsoft's shortcoming is its girth and its layers and layers of insulation from the real world of its users. I think if it listened more to us, they never would have given us Bob and Me and Vista. They'd have given us the good stuff from the start (button).

(Todd R. Weiss is a freelance technology journalist who formerly wrote for . Follow him on Twitter at )

What Will Google Do About The Microsoft-Yahoo Deal?

Google is in a difficult situation. As to create a more credible search competitor, many are left wondering what will be the search giant's response.

After for , Microsoft is hoping to expand its share on the online search market. The Redmond company is pushing its Bing search engine to the next big search market leader, Yahoo, in exchange for billions of dollars worth of advertising revenue.

With Yahoo going out of the search game, the search and advertising deal with Microsoft is set to change the online search market hierarchy. Following this, Google will still be the market leader with 65 percent while Microsoft's Bing will trail with an approximated 30 percent market share (Yahoo and Bing combined).

So Who Does the Search?

As details of the imminent deal keep emerging through the morning, that Microsoft's Bing search technology will replace Yahoo Search results. It is yet unclear whether the changes to Yahoo's search engine will be very visible, but most likely a "Powered by Bing" or similar branding will at least be added to the search results.

As pure speculation, one might guess that in the future, Microsoft will implement more of Bing's into Yahoo's search page, such as quick video previews, seamless image search results, and categorized text search results.

The Money is on the Ads

While Microsoft will gain in search engine market, Yahoo will still control the advertising on its own websites and will also sell ads for some of Microsoft's, all using Microsoft's ad technology, according to a report.

The report says that for the first two years of the deal, Yahoo would keep 110 percent of the revenue, while in the third year the company will get 90 percent. In other words, many billions of advertising dollars would go into Yahoo's pockets, as it sells ads for both its sites and Microsoft's.

The Google Reaction

In the past, Yahoo attempted to do a in 2008, but after an (DOJ), threatening with an antitrust lawsuit, the deal was cancelled.

is reporting that Microsoft was lobbying the DOJ against the Google-Yahoo deal at the time. The publication continues saying that now Microsoft is concerned about retaliation from Google, which could lobby regulators to delay the implementation of the expected Microsoft-Yahoo deal.

The Pressure is on Google

has been up to great start since it launched a little while back, getting Taking over Yahoo Search will mean that Microsoft will control almost 30 percent of the search market, with Google still leading the herd with 65 percent. But for how long?

Apple: Jailbreaking Could Knock out Transmission Towers

Apple has told the U.S. Copyright Office that could crash a mobile phone network's transmission towers or allow people to avoid paying for phone calls.

The claims are Apple's contribution to the Copyright Office's regular review of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act , a law that forbids the circumvention of copy control mechanisms.

Apple says that modification of the phone's software, a process known as jailbreaking, could lead to major network disruptions. Jailbreaking that prohibit, for example, the installation of applications unapproved by Apple.

Apple's , filed June 23, seek to rebut a request to the agency by the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that modifications to the iPhone's software and should be allowed.

The U.S. Copyright Office holds hearings every three years to consider requests to make exceptions to the nation's copyright law.

Jailbreaking continues to be popular with iPhone users, who can also then use their devices on the networks of operators who have not signed distribution deals with Apple.

Apple argues that the practice constitutes copyright infringement. No one has been prosecuted for jailbreaking, although .

Apple's latest filing describes potentially severe technical problems operators could face with jailbroken phones.

Since the OS code is accessible on a jailbroken phone, Apple said it would be possible to reprogram one to gain access to the phone's BBP (baseband processor), which controls the connection to the operator's network.

"Because jailbreaking makes hacking of the BPP software much easier, jailbreaking affords an avenue for hackers to accomplish a number of undesirable things on the network," the filing said.

By gaining access to the BPP, hackers could change the phone's ECID (exclusive chip identification), which identifies a phone to the transmission towers, Apple said.

"With access to the BBP via jailbreaking, hackers may be able to change the ECID, which in turn can enable phone calls to be made anonymously (this would be desirable to drug dealers, for example) or charges for the calls to be avoided," Apple said.

While some of Apple's claims may be true, network operators rely on a separate identifier, contained in the phone's SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), to distinguish between customers for billing and authentication purposes.

Apple went on to say that if several phones were modified to have the same ECID, it could cause a transmission tower to malfunction or kick phones off the network. Also, operator limits on data transmission could be circumvented, allowing a hacker to conduct a denial-of-service attack and crash the tower.

"In short, taking control of the BPP software would be much the equivalent of getting inside the firewall of a corporate computer -- to potentially catastrophic result," Apple said.

Technical considerations aside, the that Apple's lock on the iPhone is unmerited from a copyright protection perspective and aims to "suppress competition from independent iPhone application vendors."

The Copyright Office is expected to make a decision in the case later this year.

Yahoo Search: RIP

Goodbye Yahoo Search, rest in peace.

The partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo, , will mark the end of Yahoo Search. Next year, when the , if you run a search on Yahoo Microsoft's will be the underlying technology serving up results. Other Yahoo services remain intact, but the departure of Yahoo Search deserves a moment of reflection. After all, search is where it all began for Yahoo.

This is a shot of Yahoo.com from 1996 compliments of the Internet Archive.

Yahoo started out in 1994 as a ragtag site called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," named after founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who were at the time students at Stanford University. The name changed to "Yahoo" soon after. The name "Yahoo" was picked because it stood for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," . And a hierarchy it was.

Initially, Yahoo was a repository of hand-selected links, complete with written descriptions of each Web site -- a far cry from today's search engines that mindlessly spider billions of Web pages and index them. Back then, if you wanted to find the rules to tennis on Yahoo, for example, you would navigate to the Recreation & Sports category, then Sports, then Tennis and finally Instructions. (The service lives on today as the )

By 1995 Yahoo had an. Its big competitors at the time were Inktomi and Digital Equipment's Alta Vista. In those halcyon days of the Internet, people loved Yahoo's directory because human-picked links did a better job of indexing the Internet than robot Web crawlers.

As the number of new Websites grew, Yahoo couldn't keep pace. Sometime before 2000, it began working with search provider Inktomi to provide an index of Web sites that could be keyword searched. Ironically, Google behind Yahoo Search in 2000, providing faster and better results than the was using at the time. That deal wasn't meant to last, though. Over the next few years, Yahoo made it clear that it wanted a bigger piece of the search engine pie. (The image on the left is of Yahoo.com from 2001 compliments of the )

In 2002, Yahoo , hoping that in-house engineers could formulate a better search experience. A year later, Yahoo made an even bigger buy, plunking down $1.63 billion to own Overture Services, a commercial search provider that Yahoo was already using to handle pay-for-performance listings.

As Google became more dominant, there were signs that Microsoft and Yahoo were destined for each other. Microsoft, for instance, with Overture even with Yahoo in control. It's the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation, where neither company wants to be distracted with each other when there's a bigger target out there.

it had used for years. Search was looking like more of a priority for Yahoo, as the company vowed to build new services for Web searchers, such as technology to filter out redundant URLs. Its search engine was called , a version of the search engine is still in use today.

This is an image of the Yahoo Directory as it appeared in 2004. Image is from the Internet Archive.

That was five years ago, but the story hasn't really changed. Google never slipped from its role as the Goliath of search, and Yahoo would only thanks to Microsoft's . It's wise to for Yahoo to hang back and tend to the portal while Microsoft beefs its ranks and goes to war.

Months before the search deal, it seemed Yahoo had soured on the idea of traditional search. The company had laid out a new vision for the site, one that went above and beyond the "" that so often result from a Web search. But I wonder if Yahoo's heart was really in it. Search isn't everything, after all.

In a way, it looks like Yahoo is back to basics, focusing on delivering news, answers, events and e-mail instead of indexing the Internet. , and it still looks like a Web portal, and one can imagine how search will become even less of a featured attraction when it's being powered by Microsoft.

Funny how the company that started out as a filter for the best information will be able return to its roots -- in a sense. But it's also sad in a nostalgic way. Yahoo will never search again.

This is an image of Yahoo.com as it appears today.

Crackberry Addicts Unite: New T-Mobile Blackberry 8520 is Mac-Ready

It's almost here! Blackberry's first-ever fully-featured, native Apple support -- finally -- right out of the box is being offered in the new smartphone that will be available to T-Mobile USA customers starting August 5.

Also topping the new features list for the device is its touch-sensitive optical trackpad, which for months to replace trackball found on other Blackberry devices.

The integrated new Mac compatibility will get into gear in September, when the phone's maker, Research in Motion, officially launches the long-awaited desktop software that promises to make life easier for Mac-loving Blackberry users. Until Blackberry for Mac, Blackberry users have had to use third-party software such as PocketMac to use their devices with their Mac computers.

The new 8520, along with the just-on-the-horizon Blackberry for Mac software, will be a who until now had to put up with some frustrations to bring together their beloved Macs and Blackberries. There is, however, one caveat: Blackberry for Mac will support only Mac OS X version 10.5.5 or higher, leaving some users in the cold for now.

The new 8520 will be offered in black or frost, and includes a built-in 2-megapixel digital camera in an attractive if not distinctive 4.29-inch-tall, 2.36-inch-wide and .54-inch-thin unit.

Other features include:

• New dedicated on-screen media keys that allow users to instantly skip songs, pause their music or repeat favorite songs while easily answering calls.
• A full QWERTY keyboard.
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g enabled
• 256MB flash memory
• 1150 mAHr rechargeable Lithium battery, with a claimed 4.5 hours of talk time
• 320-by-240 pixel screen
• 2.64-inch diagonal color display
• A hot-swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, with an included 1GB card.
• Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

No pricing has yet been announced by T-Mobile, but customers can when pricing is available.

Amazing -- native Mac support comes to Blackberries. Has hell frozen over today, too?