Hacker News Reader

I think it should be in terms of how well they are achieving their mission. Which is kind of open ended and varies over time. But can be summed up as keep the Web open and unrestricted.

Their success can therefore be determined by how well they fight against things like:

* monoculture of browser's/engine's (Internet Explorer, Webkit)

* The use of vendor specific standards on web (ActiveX, NaCl, Flash Player)

* The introduction and proliferation of non-open standards on the web. (H.264, HVEC, Widevine, Primetime, FairPlay, PlayReady)

* The centralization of content and services onto a few dominant websites (Google, Facebook, YouTube)

Market share isn't a bad gauge. Their revenue streams are theoretically dependent on it. Those search deals are dependent on impressions.

Good question, but I think market share is what buys you access to 'leadership positions' and enables 'advocacy'. If Firefox has 1% market-share, nobody cares what Mozilla says or does.

Also, its hard to see that same Foundation that is used to 300M checks being successful for very long after the revenue dries up.

Use and performance of its core product, Firefox.