Well, that must mean the majority of Firefox users don’t mind housing and managing cookies collecting browsing data used for targeted advertising. Either that or behavioral targeting self-regulation efforts have calmed stalking fears and browsers are confident in using industry opt-out tools. No legislation necessary — Senators Kerry and McCain can go take naps (they really look like they need them.)

No, no, silly — obviously such a low number means that awareness of the DNT capabilities in Firefox is too low. And granted, turning on DNT in the browser is a bit of an obstacle course, forcing users to hop through all kinds of submenus to get to the controls.

But Fowler and co. have recognized this issue, and in Firefox 5 Beta, to be released this week, DNT is moving from under the Advanced menu to the top spot on the Privacy panel.

Obviously Firefox users will now turn on DNT en masse, and kill the Internet display advertising industry. Which will of course kill the Internet media industry and journalism in general. All that will survive DNT is porn — in that way, it’s kind of like cockroaches after a nuclear holocaust.

On the self-reg side, Evidon, which powers the OBA self-regulatory program and is one of several companies that dole out Forward I icons, noted at the same conference that only 10% of ads employing behavioral targeting featured the not-yet-infamous blue triangle. CEO Scott Meyer said he expected icon inclusion to increase to 50% in next six to 12 months.

OBA practitioners better hope they do or else Kerry and McCain are going to get even more cranky. Is that humanly possible?

Flash Cookies, which Adobe prefers to call local shared objects (LSOs), are used to support web technologies such as Flash Player and browsers employing HTML5. They were designed to save small pieces of information (LSOs are three hundred times smaller than an MP3) such as logins or preferences locally on a computer rather than on a site’s server.

However, some unsavory types were taking advantage of their hard-to-kill nature to restore tracking information to deleted HTML cookies or track browsers without their knowledge… Quantcast and Clearspring argued they used Flash Cookies for analytics purposes only.

Adobe has heard the cries of online privacy advocates and worked with companies such as Mozilla and Google to build a new API for clearing LSOs from a browser as well as all plugins that install the API. It was approved for implementation on Jan. 5 and should appear any day now on the Google Chrome developer channel.

In addition, Adobe is enhancing the Flash Player Settings Manager to allow users to decide which sites (if any at all) they want to employ LSOs. Currently by visiting the Global Storage Settings page you can opt out of collecting LSOs.

One new option, called InPrivate Blocking, was designed so that consumers can browse sites anonymously, in effect shielding their online habits from marketers and advertisers, and making it that more difficult to serve accurately targeted ads to consumers.

InPrivate can:

• Easily delete browsing history, cookies.
• Block tracking pixels, cookies and pieces of code third-party sites use to track surfing activity.

Many members of the industry are concerned – especially in this economic environment – about the ramifications of InPrivate.

“It has the potential to undermine the economies of the Internet,” Mike Zaneis, vice president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, told The Washington Post.

Mozilla is set to release an updated Firefox with similar features late this year.

Humanized has been working on projects for desktop and web-based software such as Enso and music search engine Songza, the report continues. The buy is thought to be based on the talent that comes with the company.

The Mozilla family is gaining some talented UI folks, which are sure to bring new innovations and headlines in the future. There are no reports currently on the financial terms of the acquisition.

“What is surprising,” wrote Beltzner, “is how little of this type of functionality has made it into today’s web browsers. The result is that when people think of tools for social interaction, email and instant messenger are at the top of their list, not web browsers.” Mozilla in turn wants to change all that.

The project code, nicknamed “The Coop”, will let users subscribe to their friends and browse their links, photos, movies and blog posts. Each friend’s face will appear in a sidebar. To share something with them, you just drag and drop an item onto their photo.

To keep from stepping on anyone’s toes, Mozilla won’t be developing any new file or distribution formats. Instead The Coop will use already existing web infrastructures like RSS feeds, which are part of most blogging sites, and site-specific APIs, which are part of most online services like Flickr and Facebook.

The toes they will step on, however, are those of the privately developed social web browser Flock, which is built on Firefox (it’s Open Source). Flock, while it is not yet out of beta, already includes full integration with photo sharing sites Flickr and Photobucket, and a drag-and-drop social blogging tool. The Coop wiki site presents a mockup designed by open source advocate Chris Messina, originally for Flock, as an example of what The Coop could become.

Firefox had between 70 and 80 million users as of October 2006, according to VP of products Christopher Beard.

“Firefox 2 delivers the best possible online experience for people today,” said Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker in a statement. “The improvements Mozilla has made to the ease of use, performance, and security in Firefox 2 reflect our ongoing, singular focus on meeting the needs of Web users all over the world.”

Firefox is an open-source project and is developed by a team of volunteers who develop new features and squash bugs, so to speak. It’s released by the Mozilla Corporation, the for-profit arm of the non-profit open-source software development group the Mozilla Foundation. The new version of Firefox is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download.

Also joining in the fray is Mozilla Corp, whose increasingly popular Firebox browser will now integrate Google Toolbar and Real’s RealPlayer audio/video software.

This latest deal just marks one of many software distribution efforts for Google, which has already signed agreements with Dell and Adobe in the past few months.

With Microsoft’s much-anticipated Vista operating system expected to be released later this year or early next, Google is attempting to somewhat cut the software giant off at the pass with its latest series of endeavors.

As for the current move, Google and RealNetworks also stated that Google Toolbar and Mozilla Firefox browser will soon be made available as options for customers of RealPlayer, RealNetwork’s Rhapsody music subscription service and RealArcade.

No financial terms were disclosed.

The lucky grand prize winner is Pete Macomber for his entry, “Daredevil”, a documentary-style film which captures the life of a girl whose “other browser is a surfboard.” The flick will now be shortlisted for the NY Festival of Advertising’s 2006 International Advertising Awards in May. All the finalists’ Firefox videos will also be incorporated into Mozilla’s 2006 marketing activities. The contest and today’s announcement of the winners wrap up the initial launch of the Firefox Flicks campaign, which will continue throughout 2006.

Macomber, who creates music videos, commercials and screenplays from his Venice, Ca. home when he’s not out surfing said in a statement, “The coolest thing about the Firefox Flicks contest is that everyone wins. Aspiring directors showcased their skills before a wide audience, inspired by a revolutionary organization, and now Mozilla has more than 250 sweet spots for Firefox.”

Established entertainment and advertising judges including the talents behind Charlie’s Angels, American Pie, and Six Feet Under selected the winners. Mozilla announced the winners following a screening of selected Firefox Flicks and a panel discussion on the emergence of community-powered video on the Web, which included speakers from Butler, Shine & Stern, Creative Commons, Current TV, and Revver.

“The response to Firefox Flicks has been fantastic with entries from as far away as Australia, but the unifying theme has been passion,” said Asa Dotzler, Mozilla community coordinator, in a press statement. “This contest provided a unique way for our community to become a part of the Mozilla project. We thank everyone who participated for helping us launch the ongoing Firefox Flicks campaign with such a big bang.”

Firefox Flicks is, according to Mozilla, the first large-scale community-produced video campaign for a software product.

“The reaction to the first wave of Firefox Flicks videos has been awesome. In the first week, these community produced videos have been viewed over one million times,” said Mozilla’s community coordinator Asa Dotzler in a statement. “We’ll be posting new entries every day at FirefoxFlicks.com and invite everyone to come check them out.”

All the ‘Flicks will be reviewed by judges from both Hollywood and Madison Avenue, who will select three winners. Mozilla, one of the sponsors of the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival, will announce the winners there, and host an awards reception and screening for FirefoxFlicks finalists on April 27th. There, they will also hold a panel discussion on community-generated video, featuring panelists from Butler, Shine & Stern, Current TV, and Revver. The winning videos will eventually become part of a greater Firefox marketing campaign.

Called “Thunderbird 1.5″, this new version of the popular platform offers users increased security and notable improvements in the areas of RSS and podcasting. With a more nuanced spam filter and automated updates that alert users to security updates and upgrades, the company believes that the application represents a real step forward from its previous iteration—and, presumably, ahead of the competition.

“Thunderbird enhances the overall e-mail experience, adding antiphishing capabilities to help keep people safer, while also integrating and simplifying access to new technologies, such as RSS,” Christopher Beard, Mozilla’s vice president of products, said in a statement.

On the RSS front, the new Thunderbird now offers users the opportunity to receive their feed updates as email messages. Email spellcheck is now standard, as are message filtering and attachment deletion; toolbar and browser customization are now part of the package as well.