AllThingsD » John Lilly

Led by Greylock, Social App MessageMe Raises $10 Million

Mike Isaac — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:25 +0000

MessageMe, the mobile application that offers free text, photo and video messaging between smartphones, announced Tuesday that it had raised a $10 million round led by John Lilly of Greylock Partners — who will join the board of MessageMe makers LittleInc Labs — with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures, Social+Capital and others. The company said it currently has more than five million users on its service.

Opinion-Sharing App Startup Polar Raises $1.2 Million

Mike Isaac — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:11:19 +0000

Polar, an app made for sharing opinions and polling your friends, announced a new funding round of $1.2 million today, and released a new version of the application, now available for download in Apple’s App Store. Investors in the round include Jerry Yang at AME Cloud Ventures (formerly of Yahoo, of course), John Lilly at Greylock Partners, Maynard Webb from Webb Investment Network, Ash Patel at Morado Ventures, Sam Pullara (formerly of Twitter) and others.

Viral Video: Rat Fingers, TouchFire and Sphero Demos

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:09:27 +0000

Here’s a ZDNet video of the gadgets I selected for the Churchill Club event that Walt Mossberg and I do annually.

This year’s celebrity geek guests were a pair of well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and VCs, Reid Hoffman and John Lilly; along with our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper.

Here’s the video of my stuff, with an assist from my No. 1 son, Louie:

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs Talks Firefox 4, Competition With Google's Chrome and More! (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:12:16 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown paid a long overdue visit on the Mountain View, Calif., HQ of Mozilla, the unusual public-private company that makes the Firefox browser, to chat with its (relatively) new CEO Gary Kovacs (pictured here).

There is a lot to talk about with the new exec, especially the near-to-official launch of Firefox 4, the increasing coopetition with Google and its Chrome efforts and where Mozilla goes next (mobile).

Kovacs, in fact, has a deep mobile background, having arrived in the late fall of 2010 to take over from John Lilly, who moved on to a stint as a venture capitalist.

Before Mozilla, Kovacs worked on a range of products at Sybase–until after its purchase by SAP–and also on mobile and devices at Adobe. Before that, he played a key role at Zi Corporation, a company specializing in embedded software and services for mobile and consumer devices.

He’ll need all that expertise if Firefox is to do as well on mobile devices as it has in gaining market share on the desktop, an effort that has been challenged by a continual and intense effort at upgrade and improvement by No. 3 Google especially.

According to a recent poll, for example, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer holds the dominant 56 percent share, with Mozilla’s Firefox at almost 23 percent and Google at just above 10 percent. Apple’s Safari and Opera follow.

Of course, Firefox has been playing nicer with Chrome cousin Android, which is beginning to dominate the smartphone market and is moving aggressively into the tablet arena. In fact, Mozilla just released a new beta in the marketplace for Google’s mobile operating system.

Still, some have fretted as Mozilla delayed its official release of Firefox 4 several times since last fall.

Nonetheless, by dislodging IE from its dominant market position, Firefox has proved not only that open-source projects can provide better software, but that it’s possible for a particularly well done one to become an everyday consumer application.

Despite its success, Mozilla still has to keep up its innovation and technical prowess. But given its unusual status as both a profit and nonprofit, it is hindered in that it is not likely to go public and shower its Silicon Valley employees with giant gobs of overhyped stock.

In the video below, Kovacs talks about Mozilla’s relationship with Google (not easy!), feature improvements in Firefox 4 (a new Chromish user interface!), how to hold onto talent in Silicon Valley (also not easy!) and what it’s like to deal with Apple (definitely not easy!).

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]

Firefox Creative Lead Aza Raskin Leaves to Found Health Start-Up

Liz Gannes — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:54:13 +0000

Interface designer Aza Raskin announced today that at the end of the year he will leave Mozilla, where he is currently creative lead for Firefox, to found a new (and already funded) stealth personal health start-up called Massive Health.

The new company, as Raskin described it, will attempt to tighten feedback loops (so that users can more immediately know the effects of their efforts to be healthy), make data actionable and create better-designed personal health tools so users can take better care of themselves.

Massive Health’s CEO and co-founder is Sutha Kamal, who previously was managing director of mobile for TransGaming Technologies. A third co-founder hasn’t been named yet, nor have the “top investors in the world” who are backing the company, according to its Web site.

Raskin, who previously founded Songza and Humanized, the latter of which Mozilla bought in order to hire him, said in a blog post,

Each of us has a unique ability. I want to use mine—the knowledge to make products which are disruptively easier and more enjoyable to use—to change people’s lives. Life-changing not in the sense of a new social website or better email, but in making people’s lives materially better by helping them get and stay healthy. Anyone that’s been sick, overweight, or had to deal with a doctor knows that health is a field in dire need of humane design.

Mozilla has been going through some changes recently, most notably the growth of Google Chrome and the naming of new Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs, who was previously at Sybase and Adobe. Kovacs joined the company after previous CEO John Lilly decided he wanted to become a VC at Greylock Partners.

Update: Raskin said in a phone interview that he felt his work as a designer on Firefox was coming to a close now that the user experiences he created, like the personal organization tool Panorama, are bring deployed. It’s now a matter of “final iterations of polish,” he said. As for Massive Health, he said to expect the company’s first mobile app to be out next year.

Mozilla Has a Brand New CEO

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:57:52 +0000

Mozilla welcomed a new CEO to the fold today. Gary Kovacs, who was previously a senior VP at Sybase and General Manager at Adobe (ADBE), will be responsible for leading the development and direction of the Firefox Web browser. Kovacs replaces John Lilly, who announced in May that he would be stepping down, as first reported here by BoomTown’s Kara Swisher. Kovacs’s first day will be November 8.

Exclusive: Mozilla CEO John Lilly to Step Down and Head to Greylock (Plus Departure Email!)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:22:12 +0000

John Lilly, the well-regarded CEO of Mozilla, is preparing to give up his post at the open-source software nonprofit foundation, which is also a for-profit start-up.

[UPDATE: Lilly confirmed the move in an email to Mozilla employees, which you can read below in its entirety.]

Lilly (pictured here) is moving to Greylock Partners as a venture partner, sources added, although the affable entrepreneur could eventually end up doing a start-up.

In a post on his personal blog about the change, Lilly said:

“Venture investing is what I’ve wanted to do for quite a long time–I’ve been involved in many startups, even building an incubator a decade ago, and have interests that span enterprise, open source, and the broader web, among others. I’m incredibly excited to join an amazing team there, and the firm that I’ve noted to be incredibly strongly oriented towards entrepreneurs–it really matches my sensibilities as an operator quite well.”

Lilly became CEO of Mozilla in early 2008, after serving as its COO. He took over from Mitchell Baker, who remained the company’s chairman.

A search is on to find Lilly’s replacement in what will be gradual transition that will last many months. Lilly will stay involved at Mozilla and continue to serve on its board of directors.

While Mozilla makes a number of products, it is best known for its Firefox browser, whose share has steadily increased since it debuted in late 2004.

According to a recent survey, Firefox had a 24.6 percent share, well up from its 11 percent share in 2006.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer still holds the lead place in software to navigate the Web with a share that just dipped below 60 percent. The Chrome browser from Google (GOOG) is in a distant third place.

Mozilla just announced that it will ship a beta of Firefox 4 next month, with a finished version coming out in November. The new version is slated to have a slicker interface and speed improvements.

By dislodging Internet Explorer from its dominant market position, Firefox has proved not only that open-source projects can provide better software but that it’s possible for a particularly well done one to become an everyday consumer application.

Here’s Lilly’s email to Mozilla staff (he also has a post on his own Web site):

Everyone,

As my five year anniversary at Mozilla approaches, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on to my next role sometime later this year. This won’t happen today or tomorrow–I expect to be here and working for several months yet, and I’m planning to stay on the Board of Directors.

This is a tough note for me to write–I feel so incredibly lucky and humbled to have worked on such an amazing project, with such spectacular people, for the last few years.

But I’ve always been a startup guy at heart–Mozilla was originally going to be a quick volunteer effort for me, but quickly turned into a full time job, and at the beginning of 2008 turned into the CEO job that I have now. I’ve really been missing working with startups, and want to learn how to invest in and build great new startups, so am planning to join Greylock Partners as a Venture Partner once we transition here.

I’m in no rush, and the most important thing to me is to build the strongest Mozilla we can, with the best leadership possible. So my plan is to stay through that transition–we’re starting a CEO search now, and plan to do it in as transparent a way as possible–which means I’ll continue in my CEO role as normal for several more months, at least.

I’ll have more to say on the transition as we figure things out more clearly, but for now, business as usual. We’ve got Firefox 4 to ship, and Firefox on multiple mobile platforms. We’ve got our web services like Weave to stand up and make available to millions of users.

For now, though, I really want to communicate a deep gratitude to each of you–over the past few years we’ve done an amazing amount together, and changed the world in so many meaningful ways. 400 million users are directly touched every day by the work we’ve done so far, and many, many more are using better browsers because of our work. There are many more contributions and victories to come.

John

Lilly appeared onstage at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last year, with Baker.

Here is the full video of their interview with Walt Mossberg at D7:

[ See post to watch video ]

Firefox Reaches One Billion Downloads [UPDATED]

John Paczkowski — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:29:21 +0000

Once the plucky underdog in the browser battle, Mozilla’s Firefox is today the second most popular browser worldwide, after Internet Explorer.

Since it was first released in November 2004, the browser has succeeded not just in dislodging Microsoft’s (MSFT) IE from its dominant market position, but in proving that an open-source project can become a widely used consumer application. Now, it is fast approaching its billionth download and is likely to hit that milestone this afternoon.

As of this writing, Mozilla’s Firefox Download Counter is showing 999,935,615, with upward of 20 downloads every second. Though that number is for downloads-to-date, not active users, it’s still an impressive one and says a lot about the mindshare Firefox has managed to capture in a relatively short time against a rival that’s bundled with the most ubiquitious operating system on the planet.

As Mozilla CEO John Lilly told me this morning, “It’s a billion votes–a billion intentional decisions–for people to take control of how they interact with the Web. We–the whole Mozilla community, really–are really proud to have been part of building a product that’s been downloaded so many times, but more importantly, we’re all proud to have helped people take more control over their online lives by making intentional decisions.”

UPDATE: Mozilla tells me Firefox hit the one billion downloads mark at 7:47 am PDT/10:47 am EDT.

Below, Lilly and Mozilla chairman Mitchell Baker in an interview with Walt Mossberg at our recent D7 conference:

[ See post to watch video ]

Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker and CEO John Lilly: The Full D7 Session

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:55:36 +0000

As CEO and chairman of Mozilla, respectively, John Lilly and Mitchell Baker have overseen the huge growth of Firefox, the innovative open-source browser.

With almost 23 percent of Web browser market in recent surveys, it is the second most popular of such software globally, after the Microsoft (MSFT) Internet Explorer, which holds just over 66 percent.

But there other competitors too, including Apple (AAPL) and now Mozilla partner Google (GOOG), which is bearing down upon it with its latest “don’t-be-evil” browser bulldozer, Chrome.

The pair talk about all this and more in an interview with Walt Mossberg at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference.

Here’s the video of the full D7 session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker and CEO John Lilly: The Full D7 Session

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:27:12 +0000

As CEO and chairman of Mozilla, respectively, John Lilly and Mitchell Baker have overseen the huge growth of Firefox, the innovative open-source browser.

With almost 23 percent of the Web browser market in recent surveys, it is the second most popular of such software globally, after Microsoft (MSFT) Internet Explorer, which holds just over 66 percent.

But there other competitors too, including Apple (AAPL) and now Mozilla partner Google (GOOG), which is bearing down upon it with its latest “don’t-be-evil” browser bulldozer, Chrome.

The pair talk about all this and more in an interview with Walt Mossberg at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference.

Here’s the video of the full D7 session:

[ See post to watch video ]

D7: The Conference in Quotes

John Paczkowski — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:00:45 +0000

Like last year’s D6 conference, this year’s D7 has had its share of memorable lines. A selection of some of the better ones below:

“He drew arrows everywhere. It looked like a Dilbert cartoon.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the org chart that company co-founder Jerry Yang drew for her while wooing her for the CEO job

“Unless you are selling porn, and weird porn, it’s not worth going the subscription route.”

– Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

“There’s always going to be someone trying to rush the fat kid to the head of the buffet.”

– Mark Cuban on a potential bandwidth crisis

“We should have named it ‘BOOM!’”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggests an alternative Steve Jobs-esque name for Bing

“The Pre eats iPhones for breakfast.”

– Roger McNamee jokes about the Pre’s prowess

“People in the music industry, we’ve had a horrible record of shooting ourselves in the head.”

– Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff states the obvious

“I’ve always said that if we described Twitter in three sentences, the first two would be about not putting too much fidelity on it, and the last sentence would be ‘we don’t know.’”

– Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

“You can’t take nine women and make a baby in the month; there is a process.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz

“Down 15 percent is the new flat. I mean, isn’t it? C’mon.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the econalypse

“It is a product that has changed the face of wireless communications.”

– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson makes obeisance to the Apple iPhone

“Would I like to see the [Palm] Pre on our network some day? Of course I would.”

– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson

“Do you want me to say something naughty now?”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to Kara Swisher

“Are you leading up to ‘I’m too old and too stupid to know what the Internet is?’ Cause by the way, Walt is 61 and I’m only 60. So… f— you.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz brings down the house with the f-bomb

“They’d have to have big boatloads of money.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz names Yahoo’s selling price to Microsoft

“I don’t see the benefits of a tablet over a notebook.”

– RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis

“That was pretty cool.”

– Walt Mossberg reviews the unreleased Nokia N97 from the D7 stage

“The people who fired you [from AOL] were later fired, so that must feel great.”

– Kara Swisher to Jon Miller, chief digital officer of News Corp.

“I’m sorry we’re starting late. Carol Bartz just trashed my hotel room.”

– Kara Swisher

“I wouldn’t have bought it.”

– Mark Cuban on YouTube

“‘First come the innovators, then come the imitators, then come the idiots.’ That’s where we are on the Internet.”

– Mark Cuban quotes Warren Buffet

“We just want everyone to get along.”

– Twitter co-founder Evan Williams on claims that the company will someday kill Google

“When someone in the government wants you, it’s not a good place to be. You don’t want to be someone’s skin on the wall.”

– Mark Cuban on his legal problems

“So what have you been up to besides dancing and fighting the government?”

– Kara Swisher to Mark Cuban

“We need companies to say, ‘this matters.’”

– Activist Eve Ensler calls for rape-free cell phones

“We like to call them minicomputers.”

– Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo renames the smartphone

“The discussion we need to have is about saving journalism, not saving newspapers.”

– Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

“You are so lucky I wasn’t born in this country!”

– Arianna Huffington, on running for president

“We’d like to be the most-watched TV network. We don’t have to be.”

– NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker on ratings

“If you were a business picking a space in which to compete, you wouldn’t pick one with Microsoft, Apple and Google.”

– Mozilla chairman Mitchell Baker

“Steve,

Forget it

Won’t help

Ha

Carol”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz‘s note to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

“It’s aimed at women.”

– Roger McNamee on the Palm Pre’s mirror

“I worked with Steve for many years and learned a tremendous amount from him, the value of user experience and design–taste. I also learned the idea of great marketing.”

– Apple alum and Pre-designer Jon Rubinstein on Steve Jobs

“Most people think of the browser as a pane of glass, they don’t realize that it really effects the way they see the Web.”

– Mozilla CEO John Lilly

“Encarta is an encyclopedia…that is not getting much ongoing investment.”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the now-defunct Encarta

“It’s not hard, I’ve been watching ‘Green Acres’ for years.”

– Kara Swisher on her imitation of Arianna Huffington’s accent

“You’re now where Google’s “don’t-be-evil” bulldozer is heading.”

– Walt Mossberg to Mozilla execs John Lilly and Mitchell Baker

“I like Chrome.”

– Mozilla CEO John Lilly reviews Google’s new browser

D7 Video Highlights: Mitchell Baker and John Lilly of Mozilla

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:30:58 +0000

Walt Mossberg interviews Mitchell Baker and John Lilly at D7 about Mozilla, Google (GOOG) Chrome, Microsoft (MSFT) Internet Explorer and the state of the modern browser wars.

[ See post to watch video ]

Mozilla: In the Shadow of the "Don't-Be-Evil Bulldozer"

John Paczkowski — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:20:04 +0000

As CEO and chairman of Mozilla, respectively, John Lilly and Mitchell Baker steward the development of Firefox, the open-source browser that challenged and then broke Microsoft’s choke hold on the browser market. As of April 2009, Firefox claimed 22.48 percent of Web browser market, according to Net Applications. That makes it the second most popular browser world-wide, after Internet Explorer, which holds 66.1 percent. An impressive feat. And an important one. Because by dislodging Internet Explorer from its dominant market position, Firefox has proven not only that open-source projects often provide better software–something to which any Linux geek will attest–but that it’s possible for a particularly well done one to become an everyday consumer application.

Session Highlights

[ See post to watch video ]

Live Blog

“How many people here have heard of Firefox?” Walt asks. Applause. And with that, Mitchell Baker and John Lilly join him onstage.
When I test a Windows computer, says Walt, the very first thing I do is download Firefox to see if it works. Because if it doesn’t, there are obviously problems. How many people use Firefox? 300 million says Lilly. But that’s just about 20 percent. Which is shocking. Because that means most folks end up using the browser that comes with their computers. And we spend more time with our browsers than with our families.
Walt asks about the Firefox growth curve. Baker says the curve has been relatively linear after an initial spike. “Why don’t people use Firefox?” Walt asks. Lilly says people just aren’t aware. “Most people think of the browser as a pane of glass; they don’t realize that it really effects the way they see the Web. Baker adds that many people fear their computers, and that might make them reticent to experiment with a new browser.

Firefox’s initial browser improvements in speed and extensibility have been matched. Mozilla is a far smaller outfit than Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and now Google GOOG). Sure, you’re nimble. But how are you going to keep up with these guys? Lilly acknowledges that rival browsers are formidable. But Firefox is still making advances in speed and performance. It’s a “modern” browser, he says contrasting it to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Walt presses further. Notes that Google Chrome has what the company claims is the fastest Javascript engine around. Apple makes similar claims with Safari. Again, how do you compete? Baker: “If you were a business picking a space in which to compete, you wouldn’t pick one with Microsoft, Apple and Google.” But remember, she says, that wasn’t the case a few years ago. It was really just IE. We’ve been around for a while and we’ve had great success. Mozilla is undaunted by Microsoft et al., apparently.
Walt: 71 of the foreign-language versions of Firefox are written by volunteers. Why should I use a product like that? Lilly says Mozilla has a system for verifying the quality of these other versions and vets them prior to release. Beyond that, users will alert the company to any problems.
Walt: Why wouldn’t it just be better for the consumer to go with the company that’s hired experts to do its translations? Baker: How much software do you really think is great? Walt: Not very much. Lilly: But it’s all written by experts. Walt nods, point taken.
Walt presses on, noting that many open-source products are rough. Baker concedes. Circling back, Walt takes issue with Lilly’s characterization of IE as not a “modern” browser.” Explain that. Fast, Supports new graphics standards. Runs apps well. Lilly says IE doesn’t. Walt asks for an example. Lilly says Zimbra.
How does it feel to be competing with Chrome, Walt asks, noting that Mozilla has long had a relationship with Google. “You’re now where Google’s “don’t-be-evil bulldozer is heading. How does that feel?” Baker says relations between the two companies are still good. They are still cooperating on geolocation, for example. The next version of Firefox will ship with that and it’s a Google service. It doesn’t have to be a Google service, but Google provides it for free and as such, is the obvious source. Lilly jumps in: As long as we build a good browser, we’re OK. We’re not without assets. “We’re not simply going to shut down because Google is entering our market.” Our point of view is that the browser can do more for you. That’s not really Google’s vision. We think of the browser as a “user agent.”
Lilly says he likes Chrome. “Really?” asks Walt. Lilly says yes. He notes that rival browsers like Chrome and Safari have made Firefox better. A nice change from competing against, IE, apparently.
Walt asks why Mozilla doesn’t making non-Web browser software. “What we’re actually trying to do,” says Baker, “is improve the Web itself….Our main goal is to make more capabilities available, and right now, the browser is the main delivery mechanism….We’re trying to be the delivery mechanism upon which others build innovations.”
Lilly mentions Thunderbird, Mozilla’s email app. Walt dismisses it as a geek app. He notes the difference between it and Firefox, which is a polished, mainstream app. Lilly says Thunderbird is not a niche app. It’s got a sizable user base.
On to the issue of mobile… Why am I not using Firefox on my iPhone or BlackBerry? Lilly notes that prior to Apple’s App store, people were not that accustomed to installing apps on their phone. “We needed that to change….That moved the power away from the carriers and manufacturers to the consumers. And we didn’t want to do ‘Firefox Mobile’; we wanted to do Firefox–the fullblown app.”
Something about Windows mobile, presumably negative [I missed it].
Walt: I wish Ballmer was still here.

Lilly: Who doesn’t? [laughter]
Baker: “What we really want to do is make Firefox a mediation layer for developers.” Rather than building 15 different versions of the browser, Mozilla wants to build a single application layer for all of them.
Q&A: The first question is about whether the company worries about a shift from a nonprofit to for-profit business. Baker says Mozilla can’t be successful with a for-profit model. “We are only successful because of our current status.”
Is Firefox responsible for Google’s market dominance? Short answer: Obviously not.
What’s the value proposition for Firefox now that Chrome exists? Questioner has switched to Chrome because it runs Google Apps better (which is the way Google designed it). So why use Firefox? People like the interface, says Lilly. They can modify it. They can skin it, etc. Lots of legitimate reasons.

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as we were able. It was not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

Welcome to Web 3.0

Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:30:12 +0000

At All Things Digital World Headquarters*, our huge staff of expert analysts** is always keeping track of two things: The latest trends in tech and media, and the latest jargon used to hype those trends.

This year, as we convene the seventh edition of D: All Things Digital, we think something major is happening at the intersection of tech and media, and we think it deserves its own new hyped-up name: Web 3.0. Yes, folks, we are declaring the Web 2.0 era over, because, well, when you run conferences and Web sites, you can say stuff like that.

But, if you read on a bit, you will see that we actually have some real, rational basis for believing that yet another seminal moment has arrived in the never-ending digital revolution that inspired us to launch this gathering. And, as you will observe over the next few days, we have assembled what we think is a stellar lineup of speakers to address this major change and other topics.

First, though, a few words about the elephant in the ballroom: The Great Recession. Or, as we like to call it on the AllThingsD.com Web site: The Econalypse. We started work on launching D during the last tech bust, and we believed then that — despite the very real economic woes afflicting the industry–the digital tidal wave sweeping the world wasn’t stopping. In fact, it was during that last recession that the iPod, iTunes, Windows XP, Mac OS X and early social networking services, like Friendster and LinkedIn, were born.

We are painfully aware that this crisis is far worse–we work at a media company, after all, and media companies have been economic piñatas lately. We do not in any way underestimate the economic pain and danger still under way all over the world. But we still believe the digital tidal wave rolls on. And we are immensely grateful to all of you for continuing to attend D under these tough circumstances. In fact, your support has been so strong that we actually sold out a few days earlier this year than last.

So what’s the seminal development that’s ushering in the era of Web 3.0? It’s the real arrival, after years of false predictions, of the thin client, running clean, simple software, against cloud-based data and services. The poster children for this new era have been the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, which have sold 37 million units in less than two years and attracted 35,000 apps and one billion app downloads in just nine months.

The excitement and energy around the iPhone and the Touch–and the software and services being written for them–remind us of the formative years of the PC and PC software, in the early 1980s, or the early days of the Web in the mid-1990s.

It’s a big deal.

But this is not just about one company, one platform or even one form factor. No, this new phenomenon is about handheld computers from many companies, with software platforms and distribution mechanisms tightly tied to cloud-based services, whether they are multi-player games, e-commerce offerings or corporate databases.

Already Palm, Research in Motion, Nokia, Microsoft and others are hot on Apple’s tail. You will hear from them here at D. And a profusion of new devices, software development kits, app stores and cloud-based services has been announced in the teeth of the economic downturn.

Some of these handheld computers will make phone calls, but others won’t. Some will fit in a pocket, but others will be tablets or even laptop-type clamshells. But, like the iPhone, all will be fusions of clever new hardware, innovative client software and powerful server-based components.

And media companies are on the case, too. You can already read The Wall Street Journal and other news sources, complete with photos and videos, on the iPhone, the BlackBerry and the Kindle, and new handheld devices are coming that are tailored to news. Our own AllThingsD iPhone app will be out by the time you read this. And consumers can stream radio and TV, and even follow live sports events, on pocket devices.

Over the next few days, you’ll hear from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, whose company makes software for both the new platforms and the traditional PCs they threaten. And the leaders of the hottest social network, Twitter, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, will talk about its future. Speaking of the future of social networking, we have invited News Corp. digital head Jon Miller and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who were recently brought in to reinvigorate the media giant’s business, to talk about how they plan to do just that.

You’ll hear from new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who’s trying to deal with rivals and suitors just as the new era is dawning. Also on stage will be the leaders of some key companies making the handheld computers’ hardware and software: Mike Lazaridis of RIM; Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee of Palm; and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of the worldwide mobile phone leader, Nokia.

From the telecom side, there’ll be Randall Stephenson of AT&T. Cable pioneer and media mogul John Malone will offer his perspective on the future of television.

And, from the content world, we’ll have Jeff Zucker of NBC, Irving Azoff of Ticketmaster, Mark Cuban of HDNet, blogging queen Arianna Huffington and Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth.

The leaders of Mozilla, Mitchell Baker and John Lilly, will talk about the role of Web browsers and open source. And playwright Eve Ensler will explain how all this shiny technology is tied, unwittingly, to a crisis thousands of miles away.

So sit back, open your minds, and get ready for Web 3.0.

*Actually, just a cottage in back of Kara’s house.

**Actually, just a handful of journalists, a couple of editors, a geek and an intern, plus some business people.

Welcome to Lucky D7: Still Gambling on the Digital Future

Kara Swisher — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:26:10 +0000

Incredibly, this is the seventh year of the D: All Things Digital conference.

We feel very lucky to get here, especially in the midst of what our own site’s Digital Daily scribe, John Paczkowski, has so perfectly dubbed the “econalypse.”

Ironically, Walt Mossberg and I planned to launch the very first conference in the middle of the last major downturn for tech, in 2001. But, in the carnage of the Web 1.0 meltdown, we actually held off for two years, with our first D gathering taking place in 2003.

It’s been a real winning streak since then for D, due in large part to our great speakers–such as Microsoft (MSFT) icon Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) legend Steve Jobs.

Both have been onstage many times over the years, including a historic interview the pair of tech titans did together in 2007 at D5.

Other amazing speakers have included: Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE), Barry Diller of InterActiveCorp (IACI), legendary director George Lucas, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN), former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, News Corp. (NWS) head Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, Walt Disney (DIS) honcho Bob Iger, Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves, Democratic and Republican pols like former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain, all the leadership of Google (GOOG) and many, many more.

We have had a lot of great moments onstage with all these tech and media players over the years, to be sure, with interviews ranging from the funny to the sublime to the truly disastrous.

But, like the digital industry and the innovation our conference focuses on, we also like to lean forward to try to figure out what the Next Big Thing is around the corner, whether it comes from Silicon Valley or not.

That’s why we’re kicking off our conference on May 26 with two of the founders of Twitter–Biz Stone and Evan Williams–who are riding high on tech’s latest hot thing, which might turn out to be either a rocket ship or a shooting star.

They’ll be followed up over the next two days by a plethora of interesting players, from the leaders of several major mobile companies to content execs hit hard by fast-moving digital forces to a new Internet leader like Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, who is trying to turn around one of the Web’s great icons from its more recent lackluster path.

And, as we always do, we will be featuring a spate of demos too, trying to see if we can unearth that next next thing.

In the past, the D stage has seen the debut of start-up products like Sling Media’s Slingbox, Aliph’s Jawbone and Pure Digital’s Flip, all of which have gone onto glory. And also some, like Palm’s Foleo, which did not.

While not everyone can attend D, our crack staff is committed to bringing all the action from this year’s conference to readers of the All Things Digital site via up-to-the-minute blogs, photos, videos, tweets, digs and more. We’ll also, as soon as we can, post the videos of each of the onstage sessions, in their entirety.

Until it all kicks off, here is the list of speakers, below, in alphabetical order, who will be appearing at 2009′s D7 conference:

Irving Azoff | CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM)

Mitchell Baker | Chairman of Mozilla

Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft

Carol Bartz | CEO of Yahoo

Mark Cuban | Chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures

Eve Ensler | Playwright and Founder of V-Day

Arianna Huffington | Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | CEO of Nokia (NOK)

Mike Lazaridis | Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIMM)

John Lilly | CEO of Mozilla

John Malone | Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation (LCAPA)

Roger McNamee | Partner, Elevation Partners

Jon Miller | Chief Digital Officer of News Corp.

Jon Rubinstein | Executive Chairman, Palm (PALM)

Randall Stephenson | CEO of AT&T (T)

Biz Stone | Co-founder of Twitter

Owen Van Natta | CEO of MySpace

Katharine Weymouth | Publisher of the Washington Post (WPO)

Evan Williams | Co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Jeff Zucker | CEO of NBC Universal (GE)

Welcome to Lucky D7: Still Gambling on the Digital Future

Kara Swisher — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:15:55 +0000

Incredibly, this is the seventh year of the D: All Things Digital conference.

We feel very lucky to get here, especially in the midst of what our own site’s Digital Daily scribe, John Paczkowski, has so perfectly dubbed the “econalypse.”

It’s been a real winning streak since then for D, due in large part to our great speakers–such as Microsoft (MSFT) icon Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) legend Steve Jobs.

Both have been onstage many times over the years, including a historic interview the pair of tech titans did together in 2007 at D5.

We have had a lot of great moments onstage with all these tech and media players over the years, to be sure, with interviews ranging from the funny to the sublime to the truly disastrous.

And, as we always do, we will be featuring a spate of demos too, trying to see if we can unearth that next next thing.

Until it all kicks off, here is the list of speakers, below, in alphabetical order, who will be appearing at 2009′s D7 conference:

Irving Azoff | CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM)

Mitchell Baker | Chairman of Mozilla

Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft

Carol Bartz | CEO of Yahoo

Mark Cuban | Chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures

Eve Ensler | Playwright and Founder of V-Day

Arianna Huffington | Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | CEO of Nokia (NOK)

Mike Lazaridis | Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIMM)

John Lilly | CEO of Mozilla

John Malone | Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation (LCAPA)

Roger McNamee | Partner, Elevation Partners

Jon Miller | Chief Digital Officer of News Corp.

Jon Rubinstein | Executive Chairman, Palm (PALM)

Randall Stephenson | CEO of AT&T (T)

Biz Stone | Co-founder of Twitter

Owen Van Natta | CEO of MySpace

Katharine Weymouth | Publisher of the Washington Post (WPO)

Evan Williams | Co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Jeff Zucker | CEO of NBC Universal (GE)

"Has Your Head Exploded Yet?" BoomTown Queries TEDsters on What They Learned

Kara Swisher — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:30:41 +0000

While at the TED conference last week, I asked a variety of people in attendance at the elite gathering which presentation had blown their head off. Figuratively, of course!

TED–for Technology, Entertainment and Design–had an eclectic range of speakers and tony digerati parties at its new location in Long Beach, Calif.

Onstage, there were a lot of talks about the awful state of the earth at TED, which sometimes feels like a four-year college in four days.

But there were also less-dire presentations, like the one from “Eat, Pray, Love” hit author Elizabeth Gilbert about genius, and another on how Brad Pitt’s head and range of facial expressions are now stored in a studio database for all eternity (as part of his work on the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).

That’s a cold comfort amid all the global melting down, but BoomTown will not refuse it.

I also got reaction from some other TED attendees to the event. Included in the video are: Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Foxmarks’ James Joaquin, Craig Donato of Oodle, Mozilla’s John Lilly, VC Dave Hornik, Steven Levy of Wired, entrepreneur Bill Gross (showing off a future car) and techie Linda Stone.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here is a video of my tour of TED action.

QOTD

John Paczkowski — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:40:02 +0000

It would be more surprising to me if Google didn’t do something in the browser space. After all, Google is 100 percent on the Web.”

– Mozilla CEO John Lilly on Google’s incursion into the browser space

Google Ignites a New Browser War With Microsoft by Unveiling One of Its Own This Week

Kara Swisher — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:41:55 +0000

In its most frontal and aggressive attack on Microsoft yet, sources with knowledge of the project said Google is preparing to unveil a new browser–ready for download to users as early as tomorrow–to try to loosen Microsoft’s iron grip on the most important piece of software for navigating the Internet.

In addition, Google Blogoscoped has published a comic book that Google is apparently using to explain the technical aspects of its open-source browser, which is called Chrome.

[UPDATE: Here is a post on Google's official confirmation of the browser launch in 100 countries tomorrow, which was released on its blog this afternoon. The beta version will be initially available only for Windows, but Google said Mac and Linux versions were coming soon.]

Until now, the Google-Microsoft battles felt more like a Cold War, mostly limited to Google (GOOG) poking at Microsoft (MSFT) via the development of small-scale Web-based software to compete with Microsoft’s dominant Word, PowerPoint and other such products, and Microsoft’s thus-far unsuccessful attempts to break Google’s lock on the search market.

But with this move, which has been rumored since 2004, the war most definitely has gone red-hot, as Google aims to grab a chunk of Microsoft’s huge browser market share, which various surveys put at about three-quarters of the market.

The efforts to do this have been well known within the company for a long time, although the timing of its launch has not.

But Google FedExed the comic too early to Blogoscoped–who is based in Germany–and possibly others, which makes BoomTown really appreciate express mail more than ever.

(I also obtained a copy and have posted the comic book here, and Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski has written a quick executive summary of it.)

Sources said Google has made the move to create and distribute a browser due to worry about what new features in IE8 could do to its search business.

These features include privacy changes that could prevent Google from collecting information related to the effectiveness of its ads, quick-linking to Microsoft mapping and other offerings, and a more robust search bar that is also more Microsoft-centric.

To combat Microsoft’s IE dominance in recent years, Google has been backing Mozilla’s Firefox browser, which grew out of the ashes of the once-powerful, now-irrelevant Netscape browser like a phoenix to claim an astonishing 18 percent of the market.

That market share has climbed from 11 percent just two years ago–even against Microsoft’s IE juggernaut with 74 percent and Apple’s Safari browser with six percent.

Mozilla’s recent launch of Firefox 3 had a record-setting debut day in mid-June, with 8.3 million downloads in 24 hours.

Google recently renewed a deal with Mozilla making its search engine the homepage and search bar default until 2011. In return, Google pays Mozilla royalties for Google ad clicks that come from searches originating in the Firefox browser.

(Here’s a recent post I did about a visit I made to Mozilla’s HQ, right around the corner from Google, as well as a video interview I did with its CEO John Lilly.)

But obviously, Mozilla’s efforts were not enough for Google, which clearly has decided it must own and distribute a browser, especially since the browser has become the most significant piece of software related to the Internet, and the fulcrum on which most of Google’s business lies.

In other words, Google is declaring the browser critical to its future and, in this regard, it is entirely right.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Mozilla's CEO John Lilly Speaks!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:01:39 +0000

I met John Lilly last October on a decidedly odd techie scavenger hunt in Hawaii–trapped in a van all day while searching for tikis and such, as if we were a geek Brady Bunch (yes, BoomTown works that hard for you)–and found him to be just the kind of quietly intelligent, thoughtful and self-effacing digital exec that Silicon Valley could use a lot more of in these often frivolous, look-at-me Web 2.0 days.

Soon after, in January, he was named CEO of Mozilla Corporation, after serving as its COO. Lilly took over from Mitchell Baker, who remains Mozilla’s chairman.

The open-source software nonprofit foundation, also a for-profit start-up, is most famous for its red dragon logo and, more importantly, its increasingly popular Firefox browser, whose share has steadily increased since it debuted in late 2004.

Here’s my video interview with him about what’s next:

[ See post to watch video ]

Firefox now has about an 18-percent share, which has climbed from 11 percent just two years ago–against Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer browser juggernaut with 74 percent and Apple’s (AAPL) Safari browser with 6 percent.

Mozilla’s recent launch of Firefox 3 should help it grow further, even though IE 8 will soon emerge out of beta too.

But on its record-setting debut day in mid-June, there were 8.3 million downloads of Firefox 3 in 24 hours. Current overall downloads have just moved past 50 million.

That means more money in the bank, although mostly from Google (GOOG), which pays Mozilla royalties for Google ad clicks that come from Firefox searches (Google is the default search box on the browser).

All is not sunshine and daisies, of course.

Besides having to keep up the innovation, Mozilla also has to keep up its technical prowess–despite the fact that it is not likely to go public and shower employees with giant gobs of overhyped stock, given its unusual status as both a profit and nonprofit.

In addition, in case you haven’t noticed, the start-up game is still rocking and it remains awfully enticing to jump into the ever-crowded pool.

For example, Mozilla lost Engineering VP Mike Schroepfer last week to Facebook, where he will be the social-networking site’s director of engineering.

But Lilly took that departure calmly, wishing him well in a classy way on his own blog, just as he seems to do most things.

Kara Visits Mozilla HQ!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:00:53 +0000

Before John Lilly got the CEO job at Mozilla Corporation, I had visited the HQ of the the open-source software nonprofit foundation and also a for-profit start-up–famous for its increasingly popular Firefox browser (logo pictured here) and red dragon logo–on Landings Drive in Mountain View.

I toured the place and took video note of a freakishly large sculpture made of soda cans and the biggest couch I have ever seen. In other words, just another typical Silicon Valley company.

Here’s an inside look at Mozilla HQ:

[ See post to watch video ]

Firefox 3: 6.5 7 Million Downloads and Counting …

John Paczkowski — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:17:55 +0000

Looks like Firefox Download Day will be one for the record books after all.

Though its servers were initially overwhelmed by the volume of download requests yesterday, Mozilla soon had the Firefox 3 download site humming along nicely. Yesterday afternoon, it was serving up 14,000 downloads a minute and 13 gigabits of data a second. And within 5 hours it had broken Firefox 2′s single-day record of 1.6 million downloads and by 5 a.m. PDT today–18 hours into its world record attempt–it had already blown the doors off the 5 million mark it had set for itself with 6,415,252 downloads. By 7 a.m. PDT it was closing in on 7 million.

“We’re incredibly happy to have released Firefox 3 and for nearly 7 million people so far to care enough to make a positive decision to download it and use it,” Mozilla CEO John Lilly told Digital Daily. “A few more hours left in download day and then we’ll shift away from thinking about download day and back to thinking about what’s next. How to make the browser even more useful on your desktop and in your pocket, and how to help more people understand that the browser is the lens that we often look at the world through today. But it’s been amazing to watch the map though the day as countries woke up and went to sleep–really gives you a sense of how global things are now.”

Global, indeed. Worldwide usage share of Firefox 3.0 has spiked since yesterday. According to independent data compiled live by analysis firm Net Applications, 4.23% of the world’s browsers are declaring themselves as Firefox 3 in HTTP requests.

UPDATE: Firefox 3 has broken the 7 million downloads barrier. As of 7:44 a.m. PDT, 7,067,347 copies of the browser had been downloaded.

(Image Credit: Al Billings)

Apple Auto-Update Installs Mozilla CEO Tirade

John Paczkowski — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:02:50 +0000

Back in 2005, word on the street had it that the Mozilla Foundation was making as much as $30 million annually from the Google search box in its open-source Firefox Web browser.

Turns out, that number probably wasn’t too far off. According to an independent auditor’s report, Mozilla made $66.8 million in revenue in 2006, quite a bit of it from Google (GOOG). As former Mozilla Corp. CEO Mitchell Baker explained in a post to MozillaZine:

As in 2005 the vast majority of this revenue is associated with the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox, and the majority of that is from Google. The Firefox user base and search revenue have both increased from 2005. Search revenue increased at a lesser rate than Firefox usage growth as the rate of payment declines with volume. Other revenue sources were the Mozilla Store, public support and interest and other income on our assets.”

But those “other revenue sources” are piddling in comparison to Google’s contribution, which apparently accounts for a full 85% ($56 million or so) of Mozilla’s revenues.

So it’s supremely ironic then to hear Mozilla CEO John Lilly criticize Apple (AAPL) for distributing its Safari browser for Windows and OS X through its Software Update utility. “What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong,” Lilly said in a blog post on Friday. “It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad–not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web. … Apple has made it incredibly easy– he default, even–for users to install ride-along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices. It’s wrong because it undermines the trust that we’re all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn’t just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the Web by eroding that relationship. It’s a bad practice and should stop.”

Now, Lilly may have a point. But he’s hardly the best guy to be making it. As ZDnet’s Larry Dignan notes, Safari–like Firefox–features a Google search box, for which the search giant also presumably pays a placement fee. A sudden gain in market share for Safari at Firefox’s expense could have financial implications for Mozilla. “Let’s say Safari grabs 10% market share and Firefox falls to about 25%,” Dignan writes. “That’s fewer searches and less revenue for Mozilla. Sure, you can argue about whether Apple’s Safari move is above the board. You can also question the security implications and a bevy of other issues. But in the end, Apple’s Safari update and Mozilla’s reaction is like any other story. To truly understand it you have to follow the money.”

UPDATE: John Lilly wrote to me earlier today with a few comments about this post. Here’s what he had to say:

Hi John –

Wanted to follow up on your post just now about us and Apple and Google.

Take this for whatever it’s worth, but revenue and market share didn’t enter my mind when I posted. At Mozilla we obviously care about having enough resources to keep the lights on and pay people, and we care about having enough market share–because it means that we’ve built products that people really care about.

But competition is good and healthy, and essential. Without competition we’d all be in a pretty bad world–sort of like AT&T in the bad old days.

I’ve got zero issues with Apple using their channel to distribute other products–I think that’s a perfectly fine thing for them to do. What I worry about is that users need to trust the security updates they get from their vendors–because if they don’t–if they think there’s an ulterior motive other than keeping software up-to-date–that’s a problem for everyone.

Anyway, I respect your right to write what you think and to be skeptical of the motives of folks like me, but I do say sincerely that in this case, revenue has nothing to do with it.”