If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you are a frequent user of the Internet. To you, it’s no secret Mozilla Firefox 3 is faster and safer, you are well aware you can personalize your experience with Firefox Add-ons and even experience the future of Web browsing with Ubiquity. But how about your friends? Family? You may have convinced them to begin using Firefox ages ago, but have they updated to the latest version Firefox 3 yet?

As the festive time comes to a close, and we turn our focus to the New Year, you’ve probably already put some thought into your New Year’s resolutions. Whatever you want to achieve, it’s likely to mark a fresh start for 2009. It’s all about enriching your life, but what about considering something a little closer to home? Upgrading your browser software is the best way to enjoy new features and to stay safe online. Help those around you to enjoy a safe and fun online year 2009. Simply ask them to go to http://getfirefox.com , and download the latest version of Firefox. It is as simple as that!

Thanks for using Firefox, and wish you a Happy New Year!

Editor’s note: Mozilla announced the release of Fennec alpha 2, an early developer release of the mobile version of Firefox, on Monday, December 22, 2008.  See Engineering Manager Stuart Parmenter’s comprehensive post for more details, excerpted here:

We’re happy to announce that our second alpha release of Fennec has come together.  While we focused much of the previous alpha on getting the user experience how we wanted, we’ve spent much of the time since focused on improving performance.  We’ve made major strides improving startup performance, panning and zooming performance, and responsiveness while pages are loading.

The release notes have information on a quick start, how to install, what’s new, known issues and how to provide feedback. So if you’re interested in getting involved with Mozilla Mobile, install Fennec and tell us what you think.

Congratulations to the entire mobile team!

Mozilla is proud to announce “Fox For All” as the grand prize winner of Impact Mozilla.  “Fox For All” was authored by Phani Kumar Vadrevu and Uttam Byragoni of India.

In total, more than 5,000 people cast a vote for their favorite plan.  While “Fox For All” received the most votes, there were several finalists who finished as close runners-up: “How Do You Firefox?” finished in 2nd place (Chicago Booth student team), “Surf On Your Own Turf” finished in 3rd (Haas business school student team), and “My Firefox” by Bruno Fleurquin of France came in 4th.

We’re extremely grateful to all ten finalists.  The degree of hard work and the diversity of ideas contributed by the teams far exceeded all expectations.  Impact Mozilla also succeeded in reaching out to groups not traditionally part of the Mozilla community (e.g., MBA students).

So, where do we go from here?

With respect to our winner, we’ll soon start engaging with Phani and Uttam to discuss possibilities for the implementation of their plan.  For our other finalists, we’ll be sending out swag as a token of our appreciation.  Impact Mozilla has been a wild success, and it couldn’t have happened without the enthusiasm of the community and strong efforts by all participants.

We’ve launched a new video section on mozilla.com to help bring some of the many great features of Firefox alive.  The feature-specific videos are narrated by the people who helped bring them to Firefox.  The new video section even includes a walk through on how to install Firefox — perfect to help people make the switch.

The videos include (and the list is growing!):

• Firefox 3 overview
• How to switch to Firefox with Asa Dotzler
• Security features in Firefox 3 with Johnathan Nightingale
• Bookmarks and tags with Alex Faaborg
• Awesomebar with Seth Spitzer

Editor’s note: Mozilla released a security and stability update for Firefox 2.x users on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm PT. Check out the Mozilla Developer News announcement , reposted below, for more details.