Source: CNET

The Webware 100 Awards honor the people’s choice in Web apps–the best sites and services chosen by you. The process of selecting the Webware 100 started with user nominations, which are now closed. Webware editors will select 300 finalists for users to vote from. Voting on these starts on March 31. Come back then to make your vote count!
Vote until April 30
Winners announced May 19

It takes just seconds to vote.

Vote for Firefox > Browsing
cnet.com/html/ww/100/2009/poll/browsing.html

Vote for Thunderbird > Communication
cnet.com/html/ww/100/2009/poll/communication.html

I’m finding myself frequently replying to posts all over the Internet in defense of Firefox and man it’s exhausting and becoming a full time job. When did all of this happen anyway? Weren’t we all just celebrating Firefox together focused on a new and exciting Web?
As I understood what Mozilla wanted from us who chooses to promote Firefox is to focus on all of the great things about it and on an open and participatory Internet freely accessible to all and not on how badly IE sucks and how quickly we’d like to see it fall.
I had (it has subsided a bit) a genuine hatred for Internet Explorer but I’ve always wanted to be a good representative and ambassador for Mozilla so I’ve held back, but now, we have Chrome.

I love Google. I use many of their services and they send me a huge amount of visitors (40,000+ last month on one site), but the people who are choosing to use and support Chrome are really coming off as abrasive, ungrateful idiots and instead of “browser competition is good for all”, or, “use anything but IE” or, “an open Web is the top priority” they’re all trashing Firefox and badly. It was that way between Firefox and Opera for a while but that cooled down long ago but it never got as bad as the hateful crap that Chrome users are spewing.
The browser that freed them from “Mammon” and made interacting with the Internet safer, more fun, and more productive now “sucks” is “crashy”, “bloated”, “slow”, “dead” etc, etc, etc.
Un-freakin’ believable!

It blows my mind that we all have to work so damned hard to selflessly get people to use something that greatly enriches their Internet lives, helps to prevent the theft, destruction, and exploitation of their personal, financial, and computer data, excites and empowers them in numerous ways, is always chosen as the best in its class by all reputable news and media outlets and it’s totally free in more ways than one.
What other single product on the planet on or offline compares to that? NONE!

Yes, I’m obviously frustrated and a bit pissed off, but I’m in this for the long haul so I’ll get my composure, work on a calm and tactful plan of attack and defense, and move forward.
And if anyone is interested in starting a Chrome Idiots Response Unit, feel free to contact me.

The following is a comment that I made on Lifehacker’s Hive Five Winner for Best Web Browser post. After re-reading my comment, I realized how sarcastic I was and that perhaps writing a post such as this one would allow me to air things out and cool down a bit.

Thanks for your time and ear, err, eyes.

(Comment)
LMAO!
Seen side by side between the comments here on this page.

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It’s odd that there’s no ad for Firefox, but it’s the winner here, and it’s the second most popular browser on the planet.

And to add to the commentary about Firefox and why it’s so popular, you cannot discount that it isn’t just Firefox the browser that people love and support, it’s Mozilla and its mission statement.

A few other things.
The winners are usually placed at the top whether it’s a web page, medals ceremony or other, not 3rd.
The Internet Explorer logo is the old IE6 one, not IE7 or 8.

But I’m glad to see that Firefox came out on top (even though placed third) especially since its nearing its death due to Chrome.

——
Ken

Firefox vs FireFox

This post is being written to set the record straight and as an (unofficial) addendum to the official Firefox Logo Guide written by Mozilla’s John Slater.

Let it first be known that I am not (and don’t claim to be) an English professor or speeeling bee champion. In fact, if it wasn’t for the built in spell checking feature in Mozilla’s applications (and other non-Mozilla products), you’d think that I was a four year old randomly pressing keys on his dad’s keyboard. However what do I know and that I’m absolutely positive about is the proper presentation of the word Firefox.

To see Firefox spelled as FireFox has always really annoyed me and my attempts to correct people one at a time hasn’t had any impact at all. I’ve seen (and continue to today) popular and reputable news and media outlets run stories with FireFox in the headlines and story’s bodies. This really boggles my mind because most writers and reporters have on-staff fact checkers and proofreaders and if not, their names are going on the articles so you’d think that accuracy would be a top priority but it isn’t.
I’ve also seen many, perhaps 50 or more Firefox add-on developers use FireFox in their add-on’s titles and descriptions. That one really blows my mind even more than it boggles it.
I just don’t understand any of it especially considering that you will never see FireFox on an official Mozilla site (unless used in a similiar context as this post).

“Ken, so what’s the big deal?”
Well, simply put it is the wrong way to present the word Firefox as it pertains to the free and open source software developed, maintained, and distributed by the Mozilla Foundation.
We do not spell and present IE as InterNet Explorer, or Microsoft as MicroSoft, Thunderbird as ThunderBird, Facebook as FaceBook, Whois as WhoIs and so on.
The word Firefox and that spelling of it is a registered trademark of the Mozilla Foundation. I have no idea who owns the rights to FireFox, but it isn’t Mozilla (that I know of). I can’t even force Google to show results for that.
And for users of Firefox in particular, doesn’t the red underline under FireFox tell you anything at all? If you right click on that word, are the suggestions just lies and an attempt to confuse you?

Please, do me, Mozilla, and the World a favor and spell Firefox as it is supposed to be and when you see it presented in any other way, take a second to leave a comment or send an email to the person who is advocating the incorrect use of the word Firefox. Any presentation of the word Firefox other than Firefox is an improper representation of Mozilla Firefox no matter what content is attached to it.

---

Logo vs Logo

This next section address another misused (and equally annoying) representation of a Mozilla trademark.
All too often around the Internet people are using the old, outdated Mozilla Firefox logo that was introduced in Firefox 0.8. Again, news and media outlets are notorious for this. As you can see below there are quite obvious differences between the two logos but to enforce my point, I am providing a detailed list of the differences that I have found and my visual acuity is actually immeasurable. If I can see the differences (highly zoomed of course), then I see no reason why others can’t.

Logo Differences:

• Different color values throughout
• Land masses – different shapes
• Outer drop shadows – different values
• Fox right drop shadows – different values
• Different head shapes (new head shorter, flatter)
• Different ears

Current (new) Logo:

• Added top gloss
• Added top dark blue stroke
• Added hair tufts to top of Fox’s head
• Added more (and detailed) hair tufts to back of Fox’s head
• Less detail to hair tufts/fur on Fox’s body
• More emphasis and highlights on flames
• Deeper shadow to flames (left)
• Fox face – shorter, different shape, more details, longer snout, different nose
• Other differences?

So in all fairness, if people around the Internet are going to use the old Firefox logo when referring to and writing about current versions of Firefox, shouldn’t the same apply to others?

Again, please spread this, post it, share it so that Firefox gets represented accurately and properly.

Thanks for reading.
Ken

• Firefox Logo Differences ODT
• Firefox Logo Differences PDF
• Firefox Logo Differences PNG (.ZIP) (600px x 1000px)
• Firefox vs FireFox PNG (652px x 502px)
• Mozilla Firefox About Windows PNG (548px x 298px)
• Download all of the above (.ZIP)

Official Mozilla Firefox Logo Guide
Includes downloadable, hi-res, large, Mozilla Firefox graphics.

The contents of this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license with the exception (of course) of the Mozilla Firefox logos and wordmark. Those are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.
You are free and encouraged to use and post the materials here to help spread the word and educate others on the correct usage of two of Mozilla’s trademarks which are not currently being respected.