Only 25% of Firefox Downloaders Are 'Active Users' 294
bheer writes "The Guardian points out a page on the Mozilla wiki noting that 'only 50% of the people downloading Firefox actually try it out, and only a further half of those continue to use it actively.' ZDNet has some commentary on the browser's retention rate. While a 25% retention rate isn't necessarily bad, Mozilla is trying to improve these figures with a 12 point plan that includes more TV and media advertising, a better start page and several installation tweaks."
Re:How do they measure this?? (Score:5, Funny)
This is what normally happends. (Score:5, Funny)
Geek B fixes it and puts firefox to help them out.
Geek B tells them to use Firefox so their computer doesn't mess up.
Person A Ignores Geek B advice because what does he know he only fixes computers.
Person A Computer gets really messed up.
Twelve Step Plan (Score:5, Funny)
2. Came to believe that a browser greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Firefox as we understood Him.
4. Made a google search and fearless moral inventory of bloat.
5. Admitted to Firefox, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our standards breaking.
6. Were entirely ready to have Firefox remove all these defects of browser.
7. Humbly asked Firefox to remove our security vulnerabilities.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly installed a patch for it.
11. Sought through addons and extensions to improve our conscious contact with Firefox, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the plugins to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to IE-aholics, and to practice these principles in all our browsing.
In other news (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's still a lot (Score:3, Funny)
Seriously though, FF on XP does a pretty good job of integrating into the OS, things can get a little strange with different themes but the default one matches luna pretty well. The options menu probably strays farthest from looking windows-like but even that is pretty close to what you'd expect to see. On Linux, well we're pretty much used to every program doing its own thing already; just the nature of OSS I suppose.
My 12-Step Retention Plan (Score:5, Funny)
1. Change Firefox icon label to closer resemble action of getting to web. No longer shall the icon on the desktop be called "Mozilla Firefox", but instead, "U CAN HAZ INTRN3T".
2. Force the Firefox icon to easier to find location. <img src="firefox.png" alt="U CAN HAZ INTRN3T" height="768" width="1024"
3. Alter the default browser settings path for better user choice. Embed an audio file of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, "Use Firefox! Use it now!" into the IE startup path.
4. Major outbound brand marketing program driving brand recognition and differentiation. A full page NY Times ad with the "Walkthrough Cat" [granades.com], its text changed to "GIT UR INTERN3T ON".
5. Improve download page and first run pages. Download page must be similar to NY Times ad, so the imbeciles we're trying to reach can actually remember wtf they're downloading. The first run page must have "HAI! U GOT INTRN3T!!" in large letters, preferably with blink tags and links to pron.
6. Launch support.mozilla.com SUMO [mozilla.org] If Firefox sees another bloated browser installed on the computer, it will challenge it to a wrestling match, the winner becoming the new default browser. A small side-effect may be a userbase increase in the Asian market.
7. Make common plug-ins work out of the box. The MegaRotic Toolbar will now be part of the initial install, as will an RSS feed of Digg.com.
8. Make add-ons and personas more accessible. The Mozilla Store will now ship free wizard hats and robes with every Firefox download.
9. Make the web feel more human. Male users will find their browser displaying all text in capital letters approximately once every twenty-eight days. Female users will find their browser doesn't remember their user preferences or date of birth form fields.
10. Improve messaging through communication channels. We will also improve messaging through non-communication channels. Yes, our code monkeys are that good. 11. Stickier start page. If you left-click anywhere on the new start page, it will take three right-clicks to get your cursor to move again.
12. Change Firefox icon image to closer resemble action of getting to web. In keeping with steps 1 and 7, the new icon will show Ceiling Cat, as we all know what most of our users will be doing on the internet.
Re:My numbers are a bit different. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's still a lot (Score:5, Funny)
Lynx supports a tag of the form <tab indent="90" id="t1"> and then later you can set up a pseudo-table using <tab to="t1"> or arbitrary tabs.
Obviously this would only work with a fixed-width font anyway.
hmm... the Lynx documentation says that the tab tag is from HTML 3.0.
Re:My numbers are a bit different. (Score:5, Funny)
In bed.
Re:Twelve Step Plan (Score:4, Funny)
14. PROFIT!
Re:That's still a lot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My 12-Step Retention Plan (Score:2, Funny)
Re:My numbers are a bit different. (Score:5, Funny)