{"id":141,"date":"2004-02-09T20:44:00","date_gmt":"2004-02-09T20:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jclark.org\/weblog\/WebDev\/Browsers\/firefox.html"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T04:00:00","slug":"firefox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jclark.org\/weblog\/2004\/02\/09\/firefox\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest release (0.8) of Mozilla Firebird is now available<\/a>, but it isn’t Mozilla Firebird. The browser has be (re-) re-named Mozilla Firefox<\/a>. This change comes hot on the heels of the last renaming, from Phoenix to Firebird, and leaves the associated mail client project, Thunderbird<\/a>, without a good reason for being named for a cheap brand of wine.<\/p>\n

The name change (redux) is not without reason, as explained briefly by the Firefox Brand name FAQ<\/span><\/a> and at more length<\/a> by Mozilla Firebird<\/del>fox lead engineer Ben Goodger. The short version: the first renaming was due to trademark issues around the name Phoenix; the second renaming was due to a name collision with another open source project that may not have been a trademark issue. I won’t go into an IP rant, others do a better job. I will say that while this was probably the right thing to do, and the time it took was unavoidable (read Ben’s account above), its unfortunate that all of the name recognition already built by Firebird has to be tossed.<\/p>\n

Along with the new release comes a new focus on marketing, beginning with a Button Campain<\/a>. Snide remarks about how well web-word-of-mouth worked for Howard Dean aside, I think it’s a good idea to get a unified branding effort out in front of the public. I am a little perturbed about this text from the bottom of the buttons page:<\/p>\n

Mozilla Firefox\u2122 and the Firefox logo are trademarks of The Mozilla Foundation. The Firefox logo is not licensed under MPL<\/span> and may not be used without the prior consent of The Mozilla Foundation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does this mean I cannot create my own badge, or modify existing badges? I might consider using the little one, but the colors do not fit my layout (I use white text on a gray background). It looks like I don’t have the right to make a new button, only to use those provided. Update – see end of post<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lastly, if you look over the provided buttons, you’ll see a confusion of message: there are three different taglines\/slogans. These are:<\/p>\n