Firefox sets world record

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 4th July 2008
Comments (14) Stumble
Firefox sets world record

The Firefox Download Day was - despite hiccoughs - a success, with a new world record being set.

The Mozilla Foundation is basking in the glory of an official Guinness World Record thanks to the efforts of Firefox fans.

The software company announced on Wednesday that Guinness adjudicators had finished checking the results of the Download Day and had confirmed the feat as an official World Record.

The Download Day, which was a twenty-four hour period starting on 17th June at 1816 UTC when Firefox 3 was officially released, was a rather clever marketing gimmick. By measuring the number of downloads of the new browser, the team hoped to set a new world record for the most downloads of a software package in a day. Which wasn't really hard, as until Mozilla came upon the idea there wasn't a record for most downloads of a software package in a day.

Despite server issues that resulted in the download being unavailable for a time, the official figure for the twenty-four hour period stands at 8,002,530 downloads – which represents a not-inconsiderable 59.5 terabytes of data shifted in that twenty-four hour slot. That's an average data transfer rate of 5,779Mb/s – or rather faster than your average 8Mb/s ADSL line – for the entire day.

Since the end of Download Day, the total downloads for Firefox 3 have increased to a staggering 29 million – of which the UK represents just over a million, with another eight million being downloaded in the United States.

The main problem with new records is that they give people a target to aim for – and, as a result, don't tend to stay records for long. While no other companies have announced official plans to best Mozilla's efforts, it'll be interesting to see who the record holder is next year.

Did anyone here participate in the Download Day, or did you grab Firefox on the day of release just to upgrade – not realising you were participating in a world record attempt? Perhaps you think software companies should leave gimmicks like this alone? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote ParaHelix.org 4th July 2008, 09:43
Yeah I got that certificate too (WOOHOO 1st comment :D)
Quote r4tch3t 4th July 2008, 10:43
I was in on it, made the thread in the forums to get people to pledge. FF3 is way better than FF2 or any other browser.
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 4th July 2008, 10:58
I wish Microsoft would do the same thing so I don't have to be IE 5.x and 6.x compliant any more. The fact of the matter is, I don't give a **** anymore for IE 5.x and 6.x users. If a client complains that user x cant see some stuff. I say "let user X upgrade his old browser"

And recently I have put in a < IE7 mode on the web templates that only shows some sort of "First upgrade to: ie7.x or Firefox 3.0" page.
Quote Timmy_the_tortoise 4th July 2008, 13:21
I was running RC1.. and then I heard about the download day and figured I might as well..
Quote Bluephoenix 4th July 2008, 18:40
I did for two test environments, waited to dl for my main environments until all of the add-ons I use are supported.


(still no tab mix plus!!!!!!!!! why!?!?!?!?!)
Quote Just Jon 4th July 2008, 19:59
FF. The first viral browser? Personally, I don't like it.
Quote Mr T 4th July 2008, 20:26
Wonder how this compared to when something like vista hit the torrent sites.
Quote Ghys 4th July 2008, 20:27
Quote:
Originally Posted by r4tch3t
I was in on it, made the thread in the forums to get people to pledge. FF3 is way better than FF2 or any other browser.

FF2 is better at the moment .... At least FF2 is not laggy as hell
Quote wuyanxu 4th July 2008, 20:43
i wonder whether it counts for multiple download from same IP....... i downloaded about 30 times on that day :P
Quote DXR_13KE 4th July 2008, 21:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghys
FF2 is better at the moment .... At least FF2 is not laggy as hell

my FF3 feels much lighter than my old FF2.
Quote wongy2803 4th July 2008, 23:15
have to agree ive noticed since using ff3 that my system is more resposive when multitasking, with multiple tabs open in ff3, when compared to ff2
Quote proxess 5th July 2008, 02:11
my FF doesn't crash like FF2 did when i was soft-porning on HI5 with multi girl tabs
Quote thermalnightmare47 5th July 2008, 14:21
i participated i got the certificate lol but in a whole it feels pretty good to me except the fact Hotmail doesn't load properly
Quote Ghys 6th July 2008, 06:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
my FF3 feels much lighter than my old FF2.

my pc probably just sucks tbh :)
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