The Robots Are Coming!
Goal: Create a first run page for the latest Firefox 3 beta that would be eye-catching enough to make people stop and explore ways they can provide feedback.
Solution: A giant robot, of course.
Your Challenge: Answer the unanswered questions…who is behind this rampaging robot? Are the UFO’s in the background working with or against it? What’s the significance of it all? Post your theories in the comments section – the best one gets a Firefox t-shirt.
Thanks to Nobox for getting in touch with their inner sci-fi geeks and creating the very cool art for this page.
**Update**
The informal contest is now over (details here)…thanks to everyone who submitted their theories. I’ve been really blown away by all your ideas!
December 19th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
My theory is like this. The robot is like Godzilla. At first godzilla was this terrible monster, but later on in the series he became a saviour of Nippon.
That robot is the internet. Originally the Internet was Netscape & IE with their proprietary implementations of HTML. Then IE prevailed by destroying Netscape and leaving web developers out in the cold with standards.
Now that we have FF the web is back to being a friendly place where pages render correctly and the demands of web developers are met with open arms.
The UFOs in the background are IEs fight for survival against a monster who is winning in the fight for a free and open web.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Well, that’s easy.
The robot is schrep keeping his eye on the next Firefox and the UFOs are the developers that are following him to destroy the last blockers.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:49 am
[...] at Into the Fuzz, John Slater, Creative Director at Mozilla issues a challenge: “Answer the unanswered [...]
December 20th, 2007 at 6:02 am
The robot and its minion tower blocks represent THE MAN (the robot being the government) and people trying to box you in, man. Trying to tell you what to do and stuff.
Firefox is trying to protect the world from THE MAN and the cubicle hell of work and taxes. It doesn’t quite cover the world (yet) it needs our help to nurture it and protect it (like a delicate flower)
The UFOs are cool. Like every funny movie has a big, fat lady falling over for comic effect, all good pictures should have UFOs shooting stuff.
Maybe its us in the UFOs firing beams of HUGs, Kisses and JOY to those corporate big-wigs who need to take time out to smell the roses and stop thinking about money and market share and putting spy ware on my machine and sending all my data to the FEDs. I say hug them into submission. That’s what Firefox is telling us in our UFOs to do man. HUG THE MAN COS HE IS SAD AND SECRETLY WANTS A HUG AND A BISCUIT .
December 20th, 2007 at 6:04 am
Can I has a t-shirt yet?
December 20th, 2007 at 6:31 am
The Robots Are Coming! | intothefuzz.com…
Goal: Create a first run page for the latest Firefox 3 beta that would be eye-catching enough to make people stop and explore ways they can provide feedback. Solution: A giant robot, of course. Your Challenge: Answer the unanswered questions…who…
December 20th, 2007 at 6:50 am
The robot was unveiled on Ken Kovash’ World Day. It can’t be just coincidence.
So, the robot is Ken Kovash and it is projecting Firefox metrics. Period.
Oh yeah, the UFOs. Umm. Could they be simple statistical errors?
What this has to do with FF3B2? A serious (beta) try to improve Firefox retention.
December 20th, 2007 at 8:33 am
[...] with your last drop of consciousness you will write your theory and may get a Firefox T-shirt. Related Categories: Firefox 3, Firefox Related [...]
December 20th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Ok, I’ll join the fun.
The robot doesn’t seem like a bad guy. It’s actually a good guy! It’s beaming up the Firefox logo in the sky, just like in the Batman movies! It’ll fight off all the bad guys with its powerful boxing gloves and could run super fast like Flash (notice the Flash superhero symbol on the ears?). It’s built to be tough against any attacks, bugs and even evil UFO’s that shoot down buildings. “The world needs Firefox 3!” The robot’s antenna (on the head) shall spread the news through all forms of telecommunication. Though it’s getting dark (notice the dark background and the sun sets), the robot shall not rest and will always fight till the end! Firefox rules!
The end.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Robot is a Mozilla Corp. The Big structure obstacles ( memory issues which are latetly under light of developers and users) But Robot has a vision of great product. UFOs are just alien companies who are beaming away blocks same way as Robot, so it’s like Microsoft, Netscape, Opera and maybe others.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Hmmm…..
Robot; somehow the ear of the robot reminds me of IE ( and the menace on the face of robot is reminding me of, “You Know Who”
). This robot is send by the IE team which is now ( late off course) seeing Firefox ( with those big lights) as a threat and is determined to wipe it out from the face of earth.
But those UFO are coming to rescue Firefox, they are all those developers, testers, and users who love Firefox and can’t see it in danger. They are more then willing to improve Firefox and make it the best ( which I believe it already is, but it is my personal opinion) and most widely used browser on the earth.
Wow!!! Firefox kicks
December 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
This is of course a picture taken at the mighty Firefox take over in 2011, Giant Robots will be built from rival software developers to destroy the Mozilla headquarters, but of course, the robots discover the power of their programs and preach holograms of Firefox and Thunderbird logos! Reminding the world to switch.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
It’s from an old silent movie made in the 1920s with very low budget special effects and lots of money for product placement, even then Firefox ruled.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I think the robot and the UFOs are all bad guys, signifying either bugs/crashes or other browsers (your choice).
The robot has just frozen in its track upon seeing the invincible Firefox (its expression says it all…its sh****ng bricks)…the UFOs end is not very far
When are you planning to announce the winners?
December 21st, 2007 at 2:20 am
Robot has red mittens… Opera is coloured in red.. That robot is Opera and UFOs are fanatic Opera’s flame-fans
December 21st, 2007 at 3:24 am
the city is internet the robot is our pc or browser and the UFOs are the bugs and viruses and threads so whit a bad and outlow browser like IE this UFOs can easily make the net an unsafe palce for us but whit a good and standard and domestic browser like FireFox 3 we can safly surf the net and fight against the UFOs with our giant robot
so i know that i’m the winner 
a love my t-shert 
December 21st, 2007 at 3:48 am
Amirhossein: but why is that robot so angry? i think.. he doesn’t like fox..
December 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Well, here goes my thoughts… The robot is FF3 ! And the buildings are actually IE – look at the three buildings that look prominently – thats the “E” lying down and the “I” had already fled the place fearing the UFO’s that are the bugs that hit you hard due to non-standard HTML done by “IE” gurus
December 21st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
MKy theory–
People spend 5 seconds looking at a page to decide if they like it or not, my guess is that a giant robot appeals to the kind of people Firefox appeals to.
I work at a large dotcom (yeah, there are still those around) and we have a game here where we read customer feedback and then try to guess the user agent. Firefox users typically seem younger, love bulleted lists of suggestions/complaints, and generally use complete sentences. Perhaps they enjoy robots, too.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:03 pm
The name of Robot is “Minefield”. The robot is destroing the city controlled by other’s browsers and is showing the light/logo of the salvation: Firefox 3!!
December 21st, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Thanks to all for the great theories. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll determine the winner next week. Stay tuned…
-John
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:17 am
Here’s the story…
Robot (Protector of the City) speaking: What is that fox doing up there? Is it burning his bouncy-ball? I must closely examine this. (turns on his hip lights)
Fox (Firefox) speaking: Dude, turn those things off, I’m trying to hibernate here! (moves his face to the unlighted part of the bouncy-ball)
Editor (Christopher) speaking: As you can see, the Fox and the Aliens are in co-hoots. The fox was distracting the Robot, so that the Aliens could destroy the city without the interference of the Robot.
Significance: Robots now being replaced with missiles, because…missiles are heat seeking! (note that we are hinting that the Aliens ships are heated)
And use Flickr to host your Pictures.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I am citing someone
#
# ORIGINALLY POSTED BY: Michael Reichardt December 22, 2007 11:38 am
#
“As you can see, the Firefox ist surrounding the Planet like a defense-shield.
The alien robot is trying to attack the planet. I suppose it’s the evil IE robot from the distant planet Redmond whos evil regents Bgates and Sballmer try to invade our planet and lead the inhabitants into slavery.
Our only hope is the little Firefox, full of magic, which can help us to fight against IE’s evil plans…”
Gota love the his interpretation
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I hear robots so I think Google…any of the Googles participated!
December 28th, 2007 at 4:08 am
All UFOs and Aliens heard about it and coming to “Get Firefox”
December 29th, 2007 at 4:23 am
If you look carefully at the Robot’s ‘ears’ they remind you of the insignia in Queen’s Radio GaGa video – which depicts an Orwellian future, the masses in unison chanting – in the Firefox future however, the masses will be chanting ‘Firefox Three!!’ (the name of the Robot) as it will be great for ‘beaming’ music, video, whatever rich media out there in the universe. If you look carefully in the background, there are flying saucers on the horizon – and the FireFox Robot is all that stands between us and them – ready to box them down while beaming the Firefox logo to gavanise us all, to stand behing him/her, united and chanting and all going ‘GaGa’.
Either that or the designer was watching reruns of Lost in Space.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 am
Better icon should be IE7´s icon… Destroy IE7 and MS…
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Was there a winner?
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
wow… seems like there is no wrong answer here so I’ll add my own spin on this, even though my response is somewhat late.
As others have noted, its simply a combat scene between good and evil…but lets put it in the right context…
Constructed and released by the distant UFOs, the giant robot represents an array of bugs, errors, and problems lurking within the Firefox 3 beta, its demonic ears and powerful steel fists…ready to knock down whatever comes in its path. It has its sight set on the mighty Firefox, illuminating it..gripping it with its electrifying beam of light as it charges through the city. The sun is setting, time is short.. but the city is awake! Firefox remains strong. United as one with thousands of users, testers, developers, who are working together to understand the robot and identifying its weak spots. Determined to defeat this aggregate of evil before it is too late !!
January 10th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Beta 2. Here come the Robots!…
Source of above image: Firefox 3 Beta 2 first run page A couple of days ago (2007-12-18), Mozilla officially released Firefox 3 Beta 2. Already there is a fair amount of coverage on the web, discussing / reviewing this second…
January 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
[...] month I announced an impromptu contest to see who could come up with the best interpretation of the Firefox 3 Beta 2 &…. I have to say, I was both surprised by and impressed with the volume and creativity of your [...]
January 12th, 2008 at 3:36 am
robot is fighting with the ufo’s(other browsers). firefox is a mighty firing tool,that robot uses while fighting with ufo’s. Sorry for my bad english, i’m from Russia
January 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
this is probably my 10th post on various blogs related to this topic…
but i stand by what i said in previous posts, i think the retro ff3 robot is waging war on silicon valley, and the batman like firefox beacon on the sky is signaling back to the mother mozilla mother world for reinforcements….
here’s another robo post on the subject http://phug.ca/index.php/firefox-3-and-robots/
what’s this i hear about t-shirts???
January 21st, 2008 at 5:21 am
People see the future in the robots and the robots see the future in Firefox.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:42 pm
robot = IE7 of MSFT attack FF3
logo = absolutely FF3, no argument, right?
ufo = FF fans together give effort to save FF3
building = the Net with all the Netizen, scrambling and desperately need Hero (FF3, I guess) to make the whole Cyber World runs well.
then, we will know the story soon. whether our lovely fox can really beat the robot? hmm…
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
The robot is Microsoft will is trying to kill Firefox as it did to Netscape. The photo shows Firefox under the scanner of Microsoft(the robot)
The UFO’s are nothing but part of the Microsoft onslaught mechanisms.
The whole picture depicts the world under Microsoft and then shows Firefox(covering the world) as a savior of the world.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:33 am
There are 3 ufo’s and one has two beams (FF 3 beta 2).
There are 3 buildings to the right of the robot and 2 to the left (FF 3 beta 2).
The robot has 3 bars on each side of his chest and two on his left glove again echoing (FF 3 beta 2).
I believe the robot is definitely in partnership with the UFO’s, the occupants may have even created him. He is shining his beams on the FF logo as if he has finally found something amazing! While the aliens aboard the UFO’s search for specimens, he realizes he has all he needs to fulfill his robot desires for zeros and ones via FF. (and the robot did a “binary solo!” 01100001010100010)
February 1st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
It is the day before the official unveiling of the final version of Firefox 7. Making use of the new Unfiltered Perception technology developed by the researches over at The Hitchhiker’ Guide to the Galaxy, the galaxy’s best browser is now completely omniscient.
After being defeated by the much larger corporate army of the Coalition of Hungry Megacorps (an alliance between all the corporations who didn’t support Firefox) around the fourth millennium, the few remaining Mozilla devs whose ancestry keeps them faithful to Firefox’s original goals and values have decided that this would be a great opportunity to change history. Of course with the recent developments supporting M-theory, delayed by the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh World Wars as well as a general societal focus on money rather than science, they are pretty sure they’ll only be changing history for some other version of themselves.
So after several secret meetings, this small group of devs decide to send Firefox back to the beginning of time (around A.D. 2009) and save some other version of themselves the vast amounts of trouble associated with overtaking the browser market, and hopefully keep them from being conquered by the Coalition of Hungry Megacorps. They might even have the robot disappear from this existence and thus destroy the now-evil Mozilla Corp. The new instructions are carefully obfuscated and merged into Firefox’s code the night before the release.
The next day billions of humans, rat people, and gelatinous blobs gather into the Mozilla Galactic Stadium anticipating the official release of Firefox 7.
Robert Neville, the CEO of Mozilla (brought to life with the new Fiction2Fact Person Maker 3000 used with an ancient copy of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend found inside a Honey Bucket at an Earth Museum) makes a long and dramatic speech about the good this new version of Firefox will do for all man-, rat-, and blob-kind. After several rounds of applause, the crowd becomes completely silent. He presses the button. Lights and diodes begin flickering on over the robot’s gigantic shiny surface as the crowd watches in awe. Finally, the two gigantic orange eyes ignite with a small click. A whisper runs through the crowd. A deep voice booms from the robot’s mouth, saying “Firefox is not currently set as your default browser?”
Amidst laughter from the crowd, Neville says “Yes.”
The humongous robot immediately vanishes. A murmur rises from the crowd, quickly growing towards becoming the biggest riot the galaxy has ever known.
More importantly, however, back in 2009, that same humongous robot suddenly appeared simultaneously in Times Square, Redmond, and San Fransisco. Trillions of dollars in damage were caused by Firefox as he and his flying-saucer-drones destroyed buildings and abducted key company officials. All the while, the glory of his logo was shone in the sky as a message to all mankind that Firefox freaking kicks. With its mission accomplished, Firefox disappears once again, never to be seen again (that I know of).
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:57 am
The robot as hackers or viruses they are sending continues attack on the internet users (the globe in FF logo) and FF is protecting the Globe
FF protects the users with its wise security features wise like a fox
the UFOs are also hackers they are nailing down the users of other browsers with their Gamma beams
the UFOs tried and failed to overcome the FF protection now they are trying with a stronger force
February 11th, 2008 at 1:40 am
This is the giant “Mozilla Robot”. And with its mega, hipper powerful weapon (“Firefox”), is planing to take all over the world! (evil genius laugh)!
No mastery, just superior technology – FIREFOX 3!
February 12th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[...] return for the Firefox 3 Beta 3 brings a few more clues about his origins and mission. You guys had some truly excellent theories about the beta 2 page, so I’d love to hear your take on his newest adventures…please leave your thoughts in [...]
February 13th, 2008 at 4:02 am
El Firefox 3 beta 3…
Ja ha sortit el Firefox 3 beta 3 amb tot un seguit de progressos respecte al que serà la versió definitva, que molta gent s’està preguntant quan serà.
Els que hàgiu provat les versions de prova beta haureu notat l’aparició estelar d’un robot g…
February 13th, 2008 at 6:10 am
[...] Mise à jour : un début de réponse ici… [...]
February 18th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
The Situation
Well the story goes as such… The world has become entranced by the features of Firefox, but there’s a problem. These features they are experiencing are being conveyed using other browsers (IE and so forth). They have been hypnotized into thinking IE actually created these concepts. The ridiculously huge robot is here to set the world right. He broadcasts the Mozilla Firefox Beacon (in the form of this beta release) so that people will see it was Mozilla who pioneered the great features which have kept the others browsers alive…and then in the process this robot tramples the other buildings (browsers) therefor reigning supreme.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
After becoming superior network on earth. The contract of Mars technology has been signed by Firefox. Mars is now a Firefox powered planet.
The whole set is kept in the mars. Here due to high temperature all the servers [resemble to buildings] are kept in high altitudes. The green-eyed monsters from Jupiter could not digest the open source concept and superiority over profiteering gluttons, which they are run with.
Wisdom, Progress, Customizations, A new direction and A Gentle Revolution were just enough to make those profiteering gluttons to come up with concept of invading Mars with ultra small saucers and then making huge robots to destroy the servers and broadcasts their network on mars, answering the world for whatever has been done is a measure for defending against anti piracy act, and making people believe what ever is being done is for their own goodness.
This was a challenge to the Firefox community and fellow hackers to put up and get going with open source to pull up the sleeves and fight back the Monster Robot. After succeeding they established their network back and hoisted their flag even in the aliens veins.[the Firefox logo is resembled to the flags tech in Mars]
After seeing all these in Mars getting inspired by the unity, love, peace, and the power of the real hacktivism of our Firefox community the envious Jupiter’s blood was stained by the insanity of Firefox. Making them fix whatever has been done to the Mars with their ultra gamma technology and releasing an open source for it.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 am
Please keep the great theories coming…however, I should point out that the winners of my unofficial little contest have already been decided:
http://www.intothefuzz.com/2008/01/11/and-the-winners-are/
Thanks to everybody who contributed – this has been a fun process…
John
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
darn, just too late
it seems to me that the aliens are coming rather than already here. maybe the aliens are IE and everything and the robot (clearly representing the team making firefox) are getting ready to defend the city (us) from all the nasty however, they’re not quite ready to take them on just yet. If the robot is destroying the buildings why are they still standing?
In the 3.3 picture the robot has defeated some of the bugs and nasties and is going off to fight the rest of them.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:18 am
[...] robot, rendez-vous sur le blog du directeur créatif de Mozilla, où il parle de l’origin de l’idée et où hier même il annonçait la sortie de la beta 4 et de son [...]
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
[...] been quite an adventure since his humble flying saucer-battling beginnings, but now that the final Firefox 3 beta has been released everyone’s favorite open source [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
[...] un robot bastante curioso, narrando en cada imagen lo que aparentaba ser una batalla. Según la gente creativa de la organización Mozilla la cosa es sencilla: Meta: crear algo lo suficientemente llamativo para que la gente se detenga y explore las [...]