Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy
Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy
Laura Chambers will step in as interim CEO to run operations until a permanent replacement is found.
Mozilla Corp., which manages the open-source Firefox browser, announced today that Mitchell Baker is stepping down as CEO to focus on AI and internet safety as chair of the nonprofit foundation. Laura Chambers, a Mozilla board member and entrepreneur with experience at Airbnb, PayPal, and eBay, will step in as interim CEO to run operations until a permanent replacement is found.
Official Blog Post: A New Chapter for Mozilla: Focused Execution and an Expanded Role in Charting the Internet’s Future
"Mozilla now makes most of its almost $600 million in annual revenue from promoting Chrome as the default search engine on its home page."
Proofreading FTW.
Chrome is just the internet, duh. Do you not support the internet? I have two internets on my computer, in case the first goes down or something. But the one internet hasn't had any issues, I just keep the second as a backup.
-- anyone in US govt
Did the Neutral President write this?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
All I know is, my gut says maybe.
Reading this new CEOs job history on linkedin is kinda infuriating. She goes from intern to head of consumer products at Skype in less than a year. Just... Frustrating to read that while I am and manage really good people who struggle for decades in the trenches to get even paltry job opportunities.
But she got her MBA from Stanford so nepotism ahoy I guess.
Yeah. "Airbnb, Paypal, and ebay" doesn't inspire confidance either
How is getting an MBA from Stanford nepotism? She probably worked her ass off not only to earn the degree but to be accepted to the university in the first place. Without knowing anything about her, I’m going to assume she’s a total rockstar until there’s a good reason to believe otherwise.
That...can't be accurate, surely? I've never known someone go from an internship to a senior IC role in less than a year, let alone leadership - unless the Skype head roles are glorified management roles?
They should focus more on their mobile browser. At this point the desktop browser is on par with Chrome. People who use Chrome does it because they don't care enough about privacy, but on mobile there is a noticeable difference between their performances.
I think they need to integrate better with their paid offerings to build additional revenue streams. For example, Mozilla VPN works with Container Tabs, but I had to look for it; that's a pretty killer feature IMO. Make it work on mobile too and a lot of people would be interested. Maybe they could white label a password manager (Bitwarden?) as an alternative to their built-in PW manager service, and make the experience really good. Throw in Relay as well.
There's a lot they could do with opt-in, privacy-centric features that I would be totally interested in.
Maybe they could white label a password manager (Bitwarden?)
not sure starting at which version, but in android you can set bitwarden as a default password manager system wide which integrates pretty seamlessly with firefox and other apps. only place i know bitwarden doesn't really integrate well with firefox is on Linux but that seems more due to bitwardens lack of interest to implement freedesktop apis.
i agree though with additional revenue streams, they need to break dependence on Google search engine revenue. maybe spend research on alternative monitization to ads and sponsored content that could be implemented at a browser level and split revenue between browser and websites.
Honestly I think its the opposite. The UI on desktop look awful and is clunky. The mobile version is nice and pleasant.
I use FF and the desktop and don't care about the look of the UI. I'm happy FF is fast and doesn't have memory leaks.
Making the mobile experience better will go further with helping Mozilla in general than making the desktop UI look pretty.
I am a big fan of Firefox+Thunderbird and subscribe to Pocket, Mozilla VPN and Firefox Relay. I don't think she was the right CEO for the job, coming into the job because she was needed after the Eich debacle, not because she was the best choice. When I listened or read interviews with her I sensed a lack of focus, which I think came through with the lack of focus and commitment I sense in Firefox's products. She seems like a better fit for chair of the foundation, pursuing pie in the sky ideas rather than in the trenches trying to rebuild Mozilla's presence and diversify their revenues. Pocket has stagnated under their care, and actually grown less useful to the point I am considering switching. The Android browser is stuck in time. I don't think it's a coincidence that Thunderbird has flourished after pursuing a semi-independent structure: they finally had people who actually cared about the product calling the shots.
The Corporation dropped Thunderbird before Eich left, before he made the infamous donation in fact. It floundered until the right people found it, and to be fair the foundation didn't exactly prioritize that either.
It's not independent though, it is a fully owned commercial subsidiary of the foundation just like the Corporation is.
Stuck in time after the addon thing? It's an amazing change.
In terms of UI, yes. The addons are years delayed. I am not criticizing the browser in itself, which I enjoy and use daily. But it is lacking in investment, meaning they can't add features at a competitive rate
I had to stop using Pocket and moved to Raindrop.io because the search on pocket has been soooooo bad.
That's honestly a good move. They are a sinking ship and they need to start to swim
That's silly, ships can't swim, they're inanimate objects!
My thoughts exactly. They’ve been making bad decisions for years.
(That said, I happily use Firefox)
Pivots to data privacy? What was their focus before?
Burning foxes
That's so messed up. Going to donate all of my money to Opera GX now
In recent years they had focused toward providing features to sync between Mozilla services. I don't know if that was a primary focus or not, but their branding has been "we're privacy focused" for a while anyway...
Mozilla is pivoting to privacy or the old CEO is?
Mozilla. They just launched a "delete me" service, and apparently they want to do more of that.
For others who are curious: https://monitor.mozilla.org/
Wow mozilla is getting into euthanasia business?
hi new CEO, any plans to update Thunderbird to look like it was made within the last decade?
thunderbird branched off from mozilla a while ago but they are doing that with thunderbird 102
I honestly wish there was a native port of AOSP Email and Calendar apps for Linux and Windows, they do what I need