Mozilla reveals Web app store plans

Mozilla has detailed plans for an "open web ecosystem" that will function across browsers.

Mozilla has released a trial product and technical specifications detailing its planned Web app store. The open source company “Mozilla” says it intends to make its store’s apps available for “any modern desktop or mobile browser,” quoting Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, and, of course, its own Firefox 3.6 as examples of “modern” browsers.



“The open Web is a great platform for rich applications,” Mozilla VP of Products, Jay Sullivan said in a blog post. “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.”

The post goes on to list parameters for developing apps for the store, including the use of established Web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and cross-browser compatibility, with an additional rule prohibiting users from being charged for porting an already purchased app on to multiple browsers. Mozilla also makes clear its intention to allow for both free and paid apps, and plans to restrict any third party from acting as a “gatekeeper” between developers and users.

Mozilla originally announced the app store plan back in May, around the same time Google was voicing intentions to release its own Chrome Web App Store, which is expected to be launched soon.