It’s official, open-source proponent Mozilla Corp. has succeeding in its efforts to drum up enough interest in its new Firefox 3 software to propel the Web browser into the hallowed pages of the Guinness Book of Records.
Mozilla sets world record with opening-day downloads of Firefox 3. Image: Guinness World Records.
Prior to the official ‘Download Day’ release of Firefox 3 on June 17, Mountain View-based Mozilla Corp. had been gathering user pledges via its Web site in the hopes of securing a record-setting 8 million downloads of the software in its first 24 hours of availability.
Thanks to the participation of Firefox devotees spread across 25 different countries, the number crunchers at Guinness have now confirmed that the Web browser was downloaded a total of 8,002,530 during its opening day, which duly sees Mozilla achieving its lofty aim -- although only just.
“The enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was key to making this happen,” enthused Paul Kim, Mozilla’s head of marketing, regarding the huge reception afforded the latest edition of Firefox, which is the main market rival to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
“The notion of going for a world record, as gooky and nutty as it may have sounded, was a really sticky idea,” added Kim in a BBC report. “It was an idea that translated really well across national borders and to all different kinds of people around the world.”
Mozilla Corp. is due to be presented with its official Guinness World Records certificate in London next week. And, as a thank you to all those who downloaded Firefox 3 during its first day of release, Mozilla is also offering its own downloadable certificate to commemorate the achievement.
Scraping past the 8 million-download marker might never have happened for Mozilla however, as its opening day release attracted so many eager downloaders that sheer weight of numbers accessing the Firefox 3 site temporarily dragged down the servers.
Once up and running at peak, Mozilla says that its servers were delivering in excess of 9,000 downloads each minute, taking only five hours to beat the 1.6 million downloads attributed to the first-day performance of Firefox 2 back in October of 2006.
In the two weeks since the furore of Firefox 3’s record-setting opening day, the Web browser continues to be a popular choice with online Net surfers and currently boasts 28 million downloads.
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