Microsoft and Apple, which makes the Safari browser, have narrowed the gap with recent upgrades. The rise of Firefox unleashed a new wave of innovation and competition among browser makers. Now the challenge is to keep proving that Mozilla matters. In short, Mozilla showed the world that browsers matter. It is a shining example of the potential of open-source software, which anyone can modify and improve, and its ascent is one of Silicon Valley’s most unusual success stories. Its success is all the more remarkable because it was built and marketed by a far-flung community of programmers, testers and fans mostly volunteers coordinated by a nonprofit foundation. Since then, Firefox has captured nearly a quarter of the browser market by focusing on speed, security and innovation.
Usually that meant Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. A browser was just a window onto the Web, and people used whatever was already installed on a computer. Those big companies weren’t giving much thought to browsers when Firefox was released in 2004, and neither were most ordinary Web users. “Google is a giant, of course, and competing with them means we are competing with another giant, which is a little tiring.”
Lilly, a soft-spoken, earnest 38-year-old. “We’ve learned how to compete with Microsoft and Apple,” says Mr. So it seemed only natural for Mozilla to move out from under Google’s shadow. But in September, it also became Mozilla’s competitor when it unveiled its own Web browser, Chrome. For several years, Google has been Mozilla’s biggest ally and patron. Mozilla’s old offices were next door to Google’s sprawling headquarters. Yet it was hard not to read symbolism into the move. Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser, had just moved from one end of this city to the other, mainly to gain more space for its growing work force. BOXES lined the cubicles and hallways in the offices of Mozilla on a recent afternoon, and its chief executive, John Lilly, seemed a bit disoriented as he looked for a place to sit.
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