There are few things I hate more than irresponsible "journalism", especially the sensationalist type that is done for the sole purpose of generating page views and clicks. Of late, I've been seeing it more and more with the most recent coming from eWeek writer Joe Wilcox. Now, I was about to jump into the fray because quite honestly, I thought this was just a poorly done piece but as I perused the mostly Mozilla-supportive comments, I spied Mozilla's Asa Dotzler's comment which does an amazing job of PROPERLY summarizing Mozilla's arrangement with Google and others. Following is his comment in its entirety:

Joe,

Rather than sensationalizing, maybe you try to, you know, inform your audience.

"But Mozilla's dirty little public secret has been its dependence on Google search revenue."

Mozilla isn't dependent on Google search revenue. Mozilla is, (and it's a bit concerning, but not terribly so,) dependent on the search advertising marketplace that most of the web is dependent upon.

Any search provider would, (and others besides Google do,) pay for traffic that Firefox generates for them. Google is the lion's share of Mozilla's revenue not because they pay more to Mozilla for searches than the other providers, but because there are a whole lot more searches to pay for.

That's because Google is the default. If, for example, Yahoo was the default, it would be the lion's share of Mozilla's revenue.

It's not about Google and it never has been. It's about search advertising and the fact that _any_ search provider is not just willing, but thrilled to pay reasonable prices for for _any_ search traffic they can get.

I know this can be a bit confusing, but it's not rocket science and as you're paid to learn about things and help explain them to others, I'd expect a little more from you. Because, for whatever reason, you've failed to explain this honestly to your readers, let me take a crack at it.

A lot of your readers have blogs so I'll explain it on those terms. It's quite a good analog, actually.

If you have a blog and you run Google AdSense, Google pays you for the traffic you send them. That makes you "dangerously dependent on Google's money" but there's nothing to stop you from moving to Microsoft's or Yahoo's or some other ad platform. So you're not really dependent on Google so much as you're dependent on the basic text or banner advertising marketplace.

Now, you might decided to diversify because you want your readers to see more than one kind of ad or because different ad platforms offer different features so you add, say, BlogAds ads to your blog. But, you keep Google at the top banner spot because it's the most relevant content to must of your users and it's not all Flash-y and probably won't tick them off as much. Now you've got most of your ad click revenue coming from that Google banner at the top but you've got some other clicks on the BlogAds banner in the sidebar below the fold.

Now you've got diversity, but you're still dependent on the same basic marketplace.

You could rotate the ad providers, putting AdSense below the fold and BlogAds up in that top spot and you can bet your revenue proportions would change but you're basically still in the same place, dependent on advertising.

That's basically the Mozilla situation. Mozilla provides a variety of search services, driving traffic to a variety of search providers and deriving revenue from those transactions. Google is the search service at the top of the page (the default) and Yahoo and Ebay and Amazon and others are tucked under fold (alternative services listed in the search menu.)

"This open-source success story is as much about commercial financial support as community participation. Firefox fails, I predict for the future, lest Mozilla gets more donors or turns the browser back over to the open-source community."

Look, Mozilla makes a few products, Firefox chief among them. Volunteer coders contributing to Firefox out-number Mozilla employed coders contributing to Firefox by 10 to 1. Open source participation is critical to making and distributing Firefox.

Volunteers contribute about 40% of the code (a number that's stayed consistent over the last five years, even as full-time Mozilla employed coders have grown from just three to over 100.) Volunteers localize Firefox into 65 languages, and non-English (the languages created almost exclusively by volunteers) account for more than half of Firefox usage today. Surveys we've conducted say that 80% of Firefox users learned about it by word of mouth, and so volunteers make up a huge piece of the Mozilla project's marketing and outreach.

Firefox simply would not happen without the amazing community of volunteer contributors. It's never been possible to ship Firefox without this community effort. Neither has it ever been possible or ever been the case that a community minus Mozilla's full-time staff could ship and support Firefox. We all work together to make it happen. Take either away and it probably doesn't happen at all.

I think, based on your characterization of things in this article, that you're either misinformed, uninformed, or simply confused about how the Mozilla project operates and how money and employment play a role.

While I'm disappointed that you've opted for a sensationalist and wildly misleading approach to this story, I'd be happy to help you better understand if you're interested.

As always, I can be reached at asa@mozilla.org.

- A

If Joe Wilcox does read my post, please man, take Asa up on his offer so you can actually understand how Mozilla works. I think it's only fair to your readers that they get the facts.

We have two pieces of fantastic, albeit serendipitous, news today: Both Microsoft and Nokia are taking the major step of adopting jQuery as part of their official application development platform. Not only will they be using it for their corporate development but they will be providing it as a core piece of their platform for developers to build with.

Microsoft is looking to make jQuery part of their official development platform. Their JavaScript offering today includes the ASP.NET Ajax Framework and they're looking to expand it with the use of jQuery. This means that jQuery will be distributed with Visual Studio (which will include jQuery intellisense, snippets, examples, and documentation).

Additionally Microsoft will be developing additional controls, or widgets, to run on top of jQuery that will be easily deployable within your .NET applications. jQuery helpers will also be included in the server-side portion of .NET development (in addition to the existing helpers) providing complementary functions to existing ASP.NET AJAX capabilities.

Nokia is looking to use jQuery to develop applications for their WebKit-based Web Run-Time. The run-time is a stripped-down browser rendering engine that allows for easy, but powerful, application development. This means that jQuery will be distributed on all Nokia phones that include the web run-time.

To start Nokia will be moving a number of their applications to work on the run-time (such as Maps) and building them using jQuery. jQuery will become part of their widget development platform, meaning that any developer will be able to use jQuery in the construction of widgets for Nokia phones.

Microsoft and Nokia aren't looking to make any modifications to jQuery (both in the form of code or licensing) - they simply wish to promote its use as-is. They've recognized its position as the most popular JavaScript library and wish to see its growth and popularity continue to flourish.

In fact their developers will begin to help contribute back to the jQuery project by proposing patches, submitting test cases, and providing comprehensive testing against their runtimes. As with any contribution that comes in to the jQuery project it'll be closely analyzed, reviewed, and accepted or rejected, based upon its merits, by the jQuery development team - no free ride will be given.

A significant level of testing will be added to the project in this respect. The jQuery test suite is already integrated into the test suites of Mozilla and Opera and this move will see a significant level of extra testing being done on Internet Explorer and WebKit - above-and-beyond what is already done by the jQuery team.

The whole jQuery team is quite excited by these prospects and wishes to take this opportunity to welcome both companies to the jQuery community. It's phenomenal to see these two, major, corporations take the large step of using jQuery as a base for their, and their developers, future development. They will join a long list of happy jQuery users, including Google, Intel, IBM, Intuit, Reuters, and many others.

Update: Blogs posts by Scott Guthrie and Scott Hanselman, both at Microsoft, have posts on the subject matter from their perspective.

Even though I'm a recent Mac convert, I still keep up with all of the trends in the PC world. One of the magazines that I pick up religiously is MaximumPC which always has great articles on the PC world. Another cool thing about the magazine is that they always include a CD full of sweet software.

When I got this month's issue, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the CD was chock full of Firefox add-ons! Check out the pics:

It included many of the add-ons currently on the AMO Recommended list such as PicLens (now called Cooliris) & FoxyProxy as well as some other cool add-ons such as Panic & GSpace.

In addition, they included a bunch of Firefox themes (e.g. Aero Fox & PimpZilla) for good measure.

I've been getting this magazine for quite some time and haven't seen them publish add-ons before so this is a pretty good indication of how important add-ons are to making the browser your own custom experience.

Now, MaximumPC is really a bit of a techie magazine but I do hope that this helps to introduce Mozilla add-ons to the more mainstream user. When I chat with non-techie folks about Firefox, the majority still don't know what add-ons are. This is something that I'm working to fix and so I'd like to hear your suggestions for spreading the word about add-ons to the mainstream crowd that has absolutely no interest in Firebug, TamperData or ColorZilla.

So I ask, how can I better reach the average Firefox user to educate them about Mozilla's add-on ecosystem?

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair... just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

I really want to reach out to the web and share some of the awesome things that are happening within the Mozilla add-ons community and in looking at tools that I've used successfully in the past, I'd really have to single out Twitter as being the top medium for getting the word out.

So taking a cue from my work with the jQuery project, I've created a new Twitter account called @mozamo which will allow me to reach out to new and existing add-on users and developers in the hopes of providing as much useful information as possible. The hard part about using Twitter though is that getting a following tends to be driven mainly by word-of-mouth, hence the reason that I wanted to blog about it and make sure that the readers of my blog knew about this new resource.

I really do find that most people truly underestimate the Mozilla add-ons ecosystem and don't understand the breadth of investment that goes into making a successful add-ons. While many are developed by hobbyist, there's also a growing number of companies that are relying heavily on the Mozilla platform for the success of their business. It's been a real eye-opening experience interacting with these developers and I'm hoping that by broadcasting lots of information out, I can help to motivate more developers to participate in creating extensions that will make the Mozilla experience that much better.

So couple this with our Mozilla about:addons newsletter and I think we're providing some very good methods of getting the word out.

If you have other suggestions for reaching the add-ons audience, I'm all ears and would love to hear your suggestions.

It seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and look at her now at 4 months old:

My wife and I definitely make pretty babies. :)

Sean Corfield blogged about some new jQuery-based Ajax replacement widgets created by Michael Sprague.

Michael wrapped the functionality of FlexiGrid, jTip and jqModal (3 of the best jQuery plugins available) into easy to use ColdFusion tags that serve to replace CFGRID, CFWINDOW, and CFTOOLTIP.

I checked them out and Michael did an excellent job!

Thanks for finding this Sean.

As many of you have seen by now, the jQuery Project's site has been redesigned. It had been a long overdue task and it was important to put a fresh new spin on the main hub, and the face, of jQuery. One of the things about the jQuery Project is that we've never run with the crowd or accepted the norm. By pushing boundaries and sometimes being "in your face" we've not only grown tremendously in popularity but we've pushed most of the other JS library projects to rethink their own principles and make changes to improve their products. That's a good thing for everyone as competition is always good.

So, it should come as no surprise by the drastic change in the jQuery website. So far, the single biggest complaint has been associated with the new banner (ie: rockstar caricature & slogan). Again, we wanted to push the boundaries and come up with something that would generate a lot of buzz. Overall, we've succeeded in that goal with plenty of positive feedback but unfortunately, with some very negative comments as well. We actually value both types of feedback and want more as it's the only way to determine if we're on the right track. As with any site redesign, you can't please everyone and we understand that. But we also want everyone to realize that this is a first cut and it doesn't mean that it can't be tweaked.

We're actively reviewing all of the feedback and will certainly be looking at how to best handle some of the concerns of the community. After all, the community is what makes the jQuery Project so special and so different from other projects. In addition, the jQuery team has always listened to the needs of the community and this time is no exception. Again, I think the team is unique in that we *DO LISTEN* to the community and we're going to work on making the site an invaluable tool for everyone. So just give us some time to go through the messages and keep an eye on this blog for updates.

Thanks for your patience and we truly appreciate your feedback.

Since coming onboard the Mozilla train, I have to say that I've had nothing but a great experience. They truly treat their Mozillians well which is why this open source project continues to be hugely successful.

This will be the space on my blog where I'll start posting more details about my experience with the AMO (addons.mozilla.org) community and my path to understanding how add-ons play such a pivotal role in Mozilla software.

This is the type of challenge I've been looking for for quite some time. I want to thank John Resig for being my supporter all of the way and getting my foot in the door. I truly appreciate it man and I can't thank you enough. And I want to thank Basil Hashem, my mentor at Mozilla, for being so patient during this upramp period. Last but not least, I want to thank Dylan Schiemann of Sitepen for putting in a good word for me with John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla. :)

This is going to be a great experience.

Registration for jQuery Conference 2008 is officially open. Register now to ensure your spot!

As announced, this one-day conference will be held in Boston on Sunday, September 28, and will feature two tracks of presentations (beginner and advanced) from jQuery project members and a few special guest speakers. A registration fee of $50 will help cover the cost of the venue, as well as food, beverages, and T-shirts for all attendees.

We're finalizing a convenient venue, especially for those who will be attending The Ajax Experience conference the following Monday through Wednesday. We're still firming up the agenda as well, but you can expect this to be a blow-out event.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at events [at] learningjquery.com