Mozilla gets new logo

The Mozilla foundation has unveiled a new logo, designed by Typotheque, featuring a new typeface plus a colon and two forward slashes (Moz://a), nodding to the structure of internet addresses (URLs). As well as the logo, the firm has a whole new brand identity in store.

For almost 15 years, the Mozilla foundation has been offering alternative open-source software solutions that are accessible to all, respect user privacy and seek to maintain the independence of the web. Its flagship product is the Firefox internet browser, which is due some major changes in 2017.

Once the main rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox has dropped to around 15% market share on computers worldwide, compared with more than 60% for Google's Chrome, according to the latest data from StatCounter. While it still has a cohort of dedicated followers, the browser is in need of a revamp, notably to solve recurrent problems such as high RAM usage.

The browser's future comes in the form of a new technical architecture and a new browser engine (Quantum). This promises to display web pages up to five times more quickly by dividing the page loading process into a series of distinct tasks. To protect user privacy, future versions of the browser are expected to take direct inspiration from functions present in the Tor Browser, which is in turn built on the Firefox platform.

This uses a decentralised and anonymous network (called Tor) to maintain user anonymity by randomly bouncing communications around the network. Such features include bundling a distinct set of fonts to prevent fingerprinting, whereby users are attributed a single online profile that can be targeted by advertisers. A new update for Firefox is released approximately every six weeks. The next is due January 24, 2017.

As well as its browser, the American foundation continues to update its Thunderbird email platform. It is no longer developing its alternative operating system, Firefox OS, although the open-source code remains available. Mozilla is also working on various projects relating to online gaming and virtual reality.