Today we’re launching Web FWD (Web Forward), the community-driven innovation accelerator from Mozilla Labs. Web FWD supports Open Web innovators by providing a space at Mozilla where they can build their products. We are creating a workshop environment where bold ideas can be realized and bare-bones prototypes can develop and go forward as products.

How

We’ll host small teams at Mozilla’s global offices for four weeks at a time, giving them access to our people, tools and resources, so they can focus on building. We’re looking for playful, useful, original problem-solving applications and tools that make the Web a better place.

During the four week program, teams will work in-house alongside the Mozilla crew. You’ll receive mentorship and guidance from some of the brightest people around, allowing you to focus on bringing your product idea to life.

At the end of four weeks, you’ll have a minimum viable product ready to go out on the Open Web. And together we can decide on how to take this product forward.

What we offer

• The opportunity to work alongside the Mozilla crew in one of our offices
• Access to key Mozilla personnel, introductions to interesting people and industry leaders
• Regular mentorship sessions with experts on technology, scalability, security, marketing, community, and business strategy
• Financial support during the program
• Help with IT infrastructure (servers, software, etc.)
• A great coworking experience with plenty of fun & awesomeness!

What we look for

• The product fits into one of the predefined problem areas
• The product is developed with the traits that are important for the open Web
• The team has at least the kernel of a product (i.e. some working code, not only an idea)

The program runs on a rolling submission schedule with the first spots opening in August. Head over to the Mozilla Labs Web FWD site for more information and submit your application.

We’re excited that Twitter has released the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on to make it easy to complete Twitter searches in Firefox. With Twitter Address Bar Search, users can discover richer and more relevant Twitter search results directly from the Firefox Awesome Bar (Address Bar).

The add-on makes searching Twitter in Firefox a snap. You can search for #hashtags and @usernames by entering the searches directly into the Firefox Awesome Bar, and you’ll be taken to Twitter search results. Twitter Address Bar Search works with the latest version of Firefox for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and even on Android!

Mozilla is continually exploring innovative ways to put users in control of their online experience. With the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on, Twitter leverages the extensible Mozilla Firefox platform to deliver an integrated social experience to hundreds of millions of Firefox users worldwide.

Visit the Firefox Add-ons gallery to try out the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on. If you aren’t a Firefox user, you can download the Mozilla Firefox with Twitter bundle.

Editor’s Note: Today, Mozilla Labs posted an update on the Open Web App Ecosystem project. Included below is an excerpt from this post. You can read the full details from Director of Mozilla Labs, Pascal Finette here.

The Web needs support for the co-existence of multiple Open Web App stores, and to enable users to use applications from these stores in a consistent manner. People buy their shoes, food and music from different stores on the Web today, and we see the same need for diversity and choice with Open Web Apps. We are excited to build a truly free and open market which is the basis for innovation and fundamental to the Web.

We recently launched a project to build the infrastructure for an Open Web App Ecosystem because we want to enable many different stores to exist and work in any modern browser across devices and platforms. The Open Web App Ecosystem will allow app developers to publish apps on their own website under their own terms, and will provide opportunities for individuals and companies to develop innovative services.

The open Web is a great platform for rich applications. It would be even better if it had additional capabilities to ease discovery, acquisition, installation and use of apps, while also enabling monetization for developers. We designed and built a prototype of a system for open Web apps: Apps built using HTML/CSS/JavaScript that work both on computers and mobile phones, have many of the characteristics that users find compelling about native apps and provide developers with open and flexible distribution options.

Today, we are releasing technical documentation of the proposed system and a developer preview prototype that allows you to install, manage and launch Web apps in any modern desktop or mobile browser (Firefox 3.6 and later, Firefox for mobile, Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and WebKit mobile). This prototype provides a simple mechanism to support paid apps and authentication features to allow apps to log users in upon launch.

The design proposed here provides the following capabilities and enables a new category of what we call “Open Web Apps” — apps that are truly of the Web.

Open Web Apps:

• Are built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• Can be “installed” to a dashboard within your mobile or desktop Web browser, or to your native OS desktop or mobile home screen.
• Work in all modern Web browsers, while enabling each browser to compete on app presentation, organization and management user interfaces.
• Support paid apps by means of an authorization model that uses existing identity systems like OpenID.
• Support portable purchases: An app purchased for one browser works in other browsers, and across multiple desktop and mobile platforms without repurchase.
• Can request access to one or more advanced and/or privacy-sensitive capabilities that they would like access to (like geolocation) which the system will mediate, giving the user the ability to opt-in to them if desired.
• Can be distributed by developers directly to users without any gatekeeper, and distributed through multiple stores, allowing stores to compete on customer service, price, policies, app discoverability, ratings, reviews and other attributes.
• Can receive notifications from the cloud.
• Support deep search across apps: Apps can implement an interface that enables the app container (generally the Web browser) to provide the user with a cross-app search experience that links deeply into any app that can satisfy the search.

Check out this demo to see more about our Open Web App prototype:

Please join us in exploring this Open Web App concept. Head over to the Mozilla Labs forum, leave a comment here and follow the Mozilla Labs blog for updates. As with everything Mozilla does, we’re developing this prototype and design for the public benefit in the open and we look forward to making this concept a reality.

Open Web App Ecosystem FAQ

Editor’s note: On May 28, Firefox Sync graduated from Mozilla Labs. For more details, check out Ragavan Srinivasan’s blog announcement, reposted below.

We are excited to announce that the “Weave Sync” project from Mozilla Labs has officially graduated and is now being incorporated into the Firefox roadmap. “Weave Sync” is now named “Firefox Sync” and the service will become a feature of Firefox in an upcoming major release. Until then you can download Firefox Sync as an add-on.

In addition to graduating and changing names, the latest version of Firefox Sync, v1.3, has a few new features and developments including:

• Availability in more than 15 languages including German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese
• A simpler sign-up and setup process
• A single button to access all your remote tabs and more.

For those of you that tested Sync and gave feedback while it was a part of Mozilla Labs, thank you, this would not have happened without you. And even though this project has graduated, we are still looking for your feedback and involvement as we incorporate Sync into Firefox.

And, yes, Mozilla Labs will continue to focus on finding ways to enhance the Firefox user experience, increase user control over personal information, and provide new opportunities for developers to build innovative online experiences. In fact, check out the Contacts project and the Account Manager feature for some of our work there.

Finally, in case you missed the latest news, we have been working on an application for the iPhone based on the Firefox Sync technology. The app is called “Firefox Home”, and it will give iPhone users instant access to their Firefox browsing history, bookmarks, and the set of tabs from their most recent browser session, in addition to having “Awesome Bar” capability.

Set up Firefox Sync on your desktop now to ensure you’re ready for Firefox Home once it’s available for the iPhone.

Editor’s note: On March 13, Mozilla Labs announced the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge winners at the the Mozilla SXSW Happy Hour. For more details, check out Aza Raskin’s announcement on the Mozilla Labs blog, reposted below:

Three projects of the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge were awarded special prizes at the Mozilla SXSW party today. Ten projects already selected as Design Challenge winners participated in a design camp in Austin, TX over the past three days. Today three of these projects were chosen for special awards: ClozeFox was selected as “best use case”; the project leader of Mupple received the prize for “sharing knowledge with others”; Expression Widgets was chosen as the “best web hack”. You can find more information about them and download all Jetpacks-based add-ons from the Design Challenge wiki.

The Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge supported projects that turn the open web into a rich social learning environment. Developed by Mozilla Labs, a design challenge is an innovative combination of online seminar series, programming competition and hands-on workshop. The Jetpack SDK enables anyone who knows the tools of the web—HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—to build powerful Firefox add-ons. Jetpack for Learning is a part of Mozilla’s new Drumbeat initiative and was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning program.

Project teams from across the world started working on Jetpack-based prototypes in December 2009. After the first round of seminars, ten finalists were invited to attend Design Camp, a hands-on workshop for hacking Jetpack-based add-ons and the future of open education, which took place just before SXSW. The overall winners were selected by a panel of judges and the Design Challenge participants themselves.

The Design Challenge finalists showcase different ways of learning on the open web:

Clozefox – Clozefox turns any webpage into an interactive, educational and fun language learning resource, and share your progress on twitter.

Cohere – Collaboratively annotate the web with Cohere. Create semantic connections between annotations while discussing them with other users online.

ExpressionWidgets – Create, capture and share web content like text and images collaboratively with Expression Widgets.

HooverNotes – Annotate the web like a book with HooverNotes. Leave comments, highlight content and collect pieces of content from multiple sites or a single web page.

LangLadder – Learn a new language while doing your everyday internet activities. Langladder integrates language exercises into activities like email, social networking and blogs.

LineHive.com – Hyperlink storytelling. Create paths through the internet by grouping webpages and sites into a timeline you can share, tweet, or embed.

Mupple – Keep best practices and experiences with Mupple by recording your web activity and sharing them with others on the web.

Net Detective – Joe Denton is one of the best gumshoes on the force, but he can’t solve these cases without your Internet detective skills in this jetpack that turns Internet search skills into a game for kids.

Rubrick – Create, share and reuse teaching rubrics using Rubrick and allow both teachers and students to get on the same page.

Study Troll – Be sure you know your facts before the Study Troll comes and demands an answer in this add-on that turns any web session into an interactive flash card quiz.

Editor’s note: On Feb 5, Mozilla Labs released new Weave Sync APIs and resources for developers. For more details, check out Ragavan Srinivasan’s blog announcement, reposted below.

Last week we announced that the Weave Sync add-on for Firefox is now generally available to seamlessly bridge your desktop and mobile Firefox experiences.

Using this free browser add-on from Mozilla Labs, you can use secure mechanisms to access all of your personal data (including your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history, and open browser tabs) across all of your supported devices, making your Web experience instantly more personal and useful.  And all of your data is encrypted end-to-end to help ensure your privacy.

This week we’re launching the first set of developer resources including Weave Sync & User APIs, documentation, and Python & Javascript client libraries — to increase the number of places where you can securely access, and have your personal data readily available to you, independent of whether or not Firefox is available.

This first set of APIs focuses on enabling Weave clients to provide user’s access to their stored data from other devices and environments.

Future APIs will provide third-party web sites and applications the ability to request permission and obtain explicit access only to specific user data to augment a users’ Web experience, e.g. providing personalized recommendations based upon a user’s bookmarks or search history.

We’re also releasing a number of early prototypes and sample code that have been developed alongside the Weave APIs, including:

• Web-based Weave client: A complete Weave data viewer implemented in Javascript.
  
• iPhone Weave client: A complete Weave data viewer on the iPhone, including support for a Firefox-like URL bar as a standalone application.

• commandline Weave client: Command-line application and library written in Python.
• WebOS Weave client: A complete Weave data viewer for Palm’s WebOS.

How to Get Involved

• Dive into the Weave Services Developer Resource site
• Post your design and early prototypes to Weave developers discussion group
• Join us in #labs on irc.mozilla.org

We’ve also tried to anticipate your questions, and have posted an FAQ .

– Ragavan Srinivasan and Mike Hanson, on behalf of the Weave team

Editor’s note: On Jan 28, Mozilla Labs released Weave 1.0. For more details, check out Ragavan Srinivasan’s blog announcement, reposted below.

Get Up and Go! – With Weave Sync, open web sites on your desktop are instantly available on your mobile device.

• Learn more about the Mozilla Labs Weave project
• Read the Release Notes for the 1.0 release for important information.
  
• Get technical support and help
• Report bugs
• Get the source code
• Discuss, debate and add to the design in the Weave discussion group
• Join us in #labs on irc.mozilla.org