They didn't push it hard enough. Persona leveraged nothing from Mozilla, save brand-by-association, and even that feebly.
Imagine Mozilla Persona being named Mozilla Login (recognition barrier down), being an integral part of the browser, just like Chrome does with Google Login (first use barrier down) and integrating seamlessly with Google and Facebook logins (registration barrier down).
I'd wager the user counts would be a significant percentage of Firefox users, making Mozilla Login a first-class citizen of Web Authentication APIs and breaking the chicken-and-egg problem. From there on, it'd be expectable that technical superiority could carry it to the top.
> Imagine Mozilla Persona being named Mozilla Login (recognition barrier down)
We actually did some testing along those lines, and it came back pretty negative. When "Mozilla" was too prominent, people did not expect it to work with other browsers, and wouldn't even attempt to use Persona.
Thanks for the enlightenment. Did you not consider going for adoption by regular Mozilla users, and only then try expanding to the wide open internet? I have the feeling that by trying to tackle everyone at once you ran into brand recognition problems.
The question must be asked: Does Persona have any chance of being used, in that context?
This branding issue can be compensated by having the browser pull out a dedicated login interface, or by really leveraging the known Mozilla brand (accepting the negative aspect you presented, which is inescapable). Without compensation, it is indeed a lost cause.
Imagine Mozilla Persona being named Mozilla Login (recognition barrier down), being an integral part of the browser, just like Chrome does with Google Login (first use barrier down) and integrating seamlessly with Google and Facebook logins (registration barrier down).
I'd wager the user counts would be a significant percentage of Firefox users, making Mozilla Login a first-class citizen of Web Authentication APIs and breaking the chicken-and-egg problem. From there on, it'd be expectable that technical superiority could carry it to the top.