July 4, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Mozilla has achieved its objective, and now has an official World Record - Firefox 3.0 was downloaded 8,002,530 times during ‘Download Day’ on June 17, 2008, it was reported recently. During Download Day’s peak, Firefox 3.0 was being downloaded 9,000 times a minute and since being made available, the latest version of the Open Source Internet browser has been downloaded over 28 million times.
Server logs were audited and duplicate and unfinished downloads weeded out to ensure Mozilla’s record was legitimate. The BBC quoted Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records (who will give Mozilla a certificate confirming the record next week) suggesting the record was, "an extremely impressive accomplishment". A couple of things did though nearly take the sparkle out of Download Day.
The record attempt was threatened by download servers not being able to cope with demand. Mozilla’s websites were unavailable for around 2 hours around the start of the event. In addition, security flaws were almost immediately found in the new version, prompting Mozilla to announce they would provide a patch very shortly after Firefox 3.0’s release. Despite the glitches, fans around the world were as pleased with the achievement as they were with the software. “This is a Firefox we’ve have been waiting for,” suggested a Firefox fan from Boston. “It’s faster, and uses less memory. It’s awesome.”
Those sentiments were echoed by a number of reviewers, praising 3.0’s sleeker look, faster response, and the effective way it gives users the choice of steering away from sites that have unsigned SSL certificates. It wasn’t all good news though. InformationWeek.com suggested, “Overall, Firefox 3 is a triumph, faster and more memory-efficient than its predecessors, with improvements to make Web surfing easier. But security is a problem.” InformationWeek.com’s review went on to suggest new security features were unreliable, and “will likely lull naive users into a false sense of security.”
Despite its success, it appears that Firefox 3.0 may have some competition for its chunk of the market – Opera 9.5. Genuinely sleek, with a host of innovatively designed functions, 9.5 has captured the imagination of many since its release timed just prior to Mozilla’s Download Day. The buzz is significant enough for PCMag.com to suggest, “The latest Opera is no tragedy; it's quicker and easier to use than ever”. They also asked, “Can it dethrone Firefox?”
