Yaroslaff, who is based in Krasnodar, Russia, cites as his design inspiration, “the Firefox itself, your approach to the web-site execution, and of course my wife who always brings up new ideas.” Be sure to check out his other Mozilla work as well as his general portfolio.

The four runners-up in the challenge were Mauro Henrique de Bulhões Fidelix’s “Hot Navigation”, Emmanuel John Y. Villar’s “One Mask One Family One World”, Joyce Schellekens’ “Firefox All Around the World” and Eric Yeoung’s “MobiFox”. Interestingly, these designers all hail from different countries (Brazil, the Philippines, the Netherlands and Indonesia), which speaks to the incredible diversity of our community. Many thanks to them, and to everyone else who participated, for sharing their time and talents with Mozilla.

We’ve also launched a new challenge at the Creative Collective: “Five Years of Firefox”. Help us celebrate Firefox’s 5th birthday by creating designs based on this milestone. The possibilities are practically endless, but should generally focus on recognizing what a great accomplishment this is for the Mozilla community and what it’s meant for the hundreds of millions of people who use Firefox. The winner will be featured on this blog, turned into desktop wallpaper and t-shirts, and more.

The submission period for “Five Years of Firefox” ends on December 9th, but don’t wait to get started. Visit the design challenge page for more details, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is now available for download. This beta version of the next version of  Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3.6 can be followed in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #planning or #developers.

This first revision of the Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features:

• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release, see this list.

Testers can download Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 53 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3.6 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

At this time most Add-ons have not yet been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If you wish to help test your Add-ons, please also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we strongly encourage you to link to this Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 milestone announcement so that everyone will know what this milestone is, what they should expect, and who should be downloading to participate in testing at this stage of development.

Calling all Web developers! We’re looking for developers from all over the Web to help us build the Mozilla Developer Network.   Firefox is an important tool for many developers and as the Web continues to evolve as a platform, we need your input to enable better communication and collaboration to push the Mozilla project forward and make the Web better for everyone.

To learn more about the initial steps we’re taking to connect with Web developers, check out Chris Blizzard’s post on the Hacks blog.

Here are a few ideas, but don’t feel limited!

• Spotlight: Borrow a projector and shine the Firefox logo on the wall during a Firefox party, or make a logo stencil and place it in front of a flashlight for a cool effect (think shadow puppets). Or, go crazy and get a searchlight to create your very own Firefox “bat signal“.
• Mash-Up: Think of the most interesting way you can combine Firefox and light. For example, create the logo out of candles on a birthday cake, program your very own lite-brite or light show, or create a fun wallpaper! If you’re really have a lot of time on your hands (and skills) you could even create a light show.  The more creative, the better.
• Mobile: Get the Firefox logo on your phone and take a picture holding it in front of a local landmark. Or, organize a bunch of friends for a big group photo with the logo on everyone’s phones.

Please upload all videos and pictures on Flickr with the tag “Firefox5″.  We’ll feature submissions on a special site launching on November 9th and the most creative actions will be rewarded with some cool Firefox swag.  Remember to have fun, but be safe and use common sense.  And, get permission before projecting our logo on public buildings!

If you’re looking for other ways to help celebrate the coming anniversary, here’s how:

• Host a party
• Join our Facebook group
• Sport a twibbon

We’re all looking forward to celebrating five years of hard work on the 9th!

Last week, the Personas community welcomed its 30,000th persona design.  Also, within the new few weeks stay tuned – we’ll be officially launching a Holiday category, which you can start using today!

The official endoresement and supporting organizations can be found below.  Hacks.mozilla.org also has a full post about WOFF implementation for Firefox 3.6 and beyond.

We endorse the WOFF specification, with default same-origin loading restrictions, as a Web font format, and expect to license fonts for Web use in this format.

Bold Monday http://www.boldmonday.com
Commercial Type http://commercialtype.com
Emigre http://emigre.com
Emtype Foundry http://www.emtype.net
Fonthead http://www.fonthead.com
FontShop International http://fontfont.com
Hoefler & Frere-Jones http://typography.com
House Industries http://houseindustries.com
Incipit http://incipit.com
Incubator http://vllg.com/Incubator
The Indian Type Foundry http://www.indiantypefoundry.com
International Typeface Corporation http://itcfonts.com
Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd www.typography.net
John Downer http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/2007production/Bios/DownerBio.pdf (PDF link)
Klim Type Foundry http://klim.co.nz
KLTF http://kltf.de
Kombinat-Typefounders http://www.kombin.at
LettError http://letterror.com
Linotype http://linotype.com
Lux Typographics http://luxtypo.com
Mac Rhino Fonts http://www.macrhino.com
Mark Simonson Studio http://www.ms-studio.com
Monotype Imaging http://fonts.com
Okay Type & Design http://www.okaytype.com
OurType http://www.ourtype.be
Process Type Foundry http://processtypefoundry.com
Thirstype http://vllg.com/Thirstype
Type My Type http://typemytype.com
Type Supply http://typesupply.com
TypoNine http://typonine.com
Typotheque http://typotheque.com
Underware http://www.underware.nl
Village http://vllg.com

View the announcement blog post with full details here.

• Improved touch-friendly theme
• Improved panning and zooming performance and behavior
• Add search providers from the site identity panel
• Manage search providers from the Add-ons Manager
• Simplified the Download Manager (removed searching and find file on disk)
• Streamlined the bookmarking process
• Simplified the bookmark management
• Popup notification when background tabs open
• Bookmark list now displays the URL and tags associated with a bookmark
• Added a product information page (about:fennec or use the button in Preferences)
• Support for add-ons options in the Add-on Manager
• Support for updating add-ons
• Support for the HandheldFriendly meta-tag (support for the viewport meta-tag is coming)

You can find more information on Mark Finkle’s blog, Mozilla’s mobile developer and platform evangelist.  The team has also spent time making sure Fennec runs well on Nokia’s N900 device.

Mark Surman’s thoughts on OneWebDay 2009 and why the Web matters.  Check out his original post here.

I woke up this morning to a feed reader full of I <3 the web photos from India. Got to the office: a bunch more from Europe. And a video from Toronto. Today is OneWebDay. And, slowly, a wave of celebration for the web is rolling around the world.

Why take the time to say ‘I love the web’? My reason: I believe it is worth stopping to remember that the web is not only a huge source of creativity, innovation and wonder, but it’s also something all of us help create everyday. The web may feel like oxygen, just there all the time. But it is oxygen that we all help to make. OneWebDay is about taking a moment once a year celebrate the (better and open) web we’re all creating.

It’ll be interesting to see if the I <3 the web poster wave builds. You can join in by posting a photo or changing your twitter, identi.ca or facebook icon. In the meantime, I want call out a few of the many awesome contributions so far …

Happy OneWebDay all. And make sure to join the wave by posting a photo or changing your twitter, identi.ca or facebook icon. Love the web. Share the love.

Thank you to each and everyone of you who participated in and helped promote Mozilla Service Week!    The Mozilla community didn’t disappoint – thousands of you got out, and made a difference in our communities and the Web. Kudos to all!

Now it’s time to see how we did.  Please take a moment to report your hours and share your stories by Sept. 25th (we’ll start displaying completed hours on our site tomorrow). We’re throwing in a little memento for those that do this!

Wondering what’s next?  Today is OneWebDay, a global celebration of the Web — which is a wonderful way to wrap up Mozilla Service Week!  Here’s how to celebrate:

• Print and share an ‘I love the web poster’. Or change your twitter of Facebook pic! Create a global wave that shows the Web is a precious public resource.
• Conduct an Internet Health Check. Find computers with Internet Explorer 6, and upgrade them to a more secure browser.
• Find a OneWebDay party or celebration near you!
• Donate to OneWebDay. Every time you donate, Mozilla will too.

Thanks for making a difference this week!  We’re hoping the spirit lives on all year long.