About

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open-source web browser available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It was developed by the Mozilla Corporation, and is considered a spiritual successor to Netscape Navigator. It uses the Gecko layout engine. Once the most popular web browser online, Firefox has been surpassed by Google Chrome in recent years, though it is still the most popular web browser in certain areas of the world.

History

Firefox began as an experiment started by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt, and Blake Ross of the Mozilla team, who believed the Mozilla suite which came with Netscape Navigator had "software bloat."^[1] The product was originally called Phoenix, a reference to how the browser "rose from the ashes" of Netscape Navigator after it was killed off by Internet Explorer. The project was renamed Firefox in 2004, and version 1.0 was released on November 9th, 2004.

In 2009, Firefox had 32% of the internet's web browser usage, making version 3.5 the largest search engine in the world at the time. As of September of 2017, Firefox has between 5.9 and 13.6% of the internet's web browser usage, putting it second behind Google Chrome. Since the release of version 5.0, a rapid-release cycle has been implemented, with a major update implemented every six weeks.^[2] As of December 19th, 2017, Firefox is running on version 57.0. In 2016, Firefox introduced "Quantum," an addition to Firefox that aimed to make Firefox run faster in comparison to Google Chrome.

Mr. Robot Plug-in Controversy

On December 13th, 2017, Firefox implemented a plug-in called "Looking Glass" tying in with a web-based game based on the television show Mr. Robot.^[3] However the cryptic rollout of the plug-in--it's description only read "my reality is different than yours"--disturbed Firefox users, some of whom uninstalled the browser on the spot.^[4] After receiving intense backlash on the way the way the add-on was simply added to Firefox users' browsers with no choice given to the user, a practice Firefox has lamented from their competitors. The backlash to Firefox led to a question posted to Reddit's /r/OutOfTheLoop^[5] that gained over 8,600 points.

Related Memes

Firefox has been the subject of image macros and fan art, particularly at the height of its popularity in the late 2000s, meaning many Firefox memes are in the form of advice animals and demotivational posters (examples shown below).

Much of the fan art surrounding Firefox involves drawing it as characters from other pieces of media. For example, a common trope is to draw Firefox as Fennekin from the fourth generation of Pokémon (shown below, left). Various other characters have been illustrated as Firefox as well (examples shown below).

Online Presence

Online, Firefox has a devoted subreddit which has over 39,000 subscribers.^[6] The product also has over 18 million likes on Facebook.^[7]

Search Interest

External References