Mozilla logs 8 million-plus Firefox 3 downloads in a day
After a rocky start to its Firefox 3 "Download Day," Mozilla logged more than 8 million downloads of the latest version of its Web browser in 24 hours, the company said Wednesday.
Firefox 3 was downloaded 8,349,074 times between 2:16 p.m. ET Tuesday and 2:16 p.m. ET Wednesday -- more Firefox downloads than the company has ever had in one day, according to a Mozilla Web site tracking the browser's first-day download process.
Mozilla said on May 28 that it would attempt to establish a Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period with Firefox 3's release.
As part of the plan, Mozilla deemed Tuesday Download Day and hosted a download party at its Mountain View, California, office.
In comparison, Firefox 2 was downloaded 1.6 million times in its first 24 hours of release; to date, it has been downloaded more than half a billion times, according to Mozilla. There was no Download Day fanfare surrounding Firefox 2's release, however.
Mozilla is now awaiting review by the Guinness judges to see if its goal was accomplished, according to the Download Day Web site. There is currently no record for the number of software downloads in 24 hours; Mozilla's would be the first.
Despite its eventual success, Firefox 3 Download Day didn't go off without a hitch. Interest in the endeavor crippled Mozilla's servers on Tuesday, so the U.S. part of the download process started around 3 p.m. ET -- two hours later than originally planned -- when Mozilla's site wouldn't work properly.
The European leg of the effort began a little more than an hour later than planned and marked the start of the download-logging process. There were no more problems reported once the U.S. site was back up and running.
IDG News Service
Build your tech library with our book giveaways.
Hacking Exposed, Sixth Edition
By Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray, George Kurtz; Published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne
The original Hacking Exposed authors rejoin forces on this tenth anniversary edition to offer completely up-to-date coverage of today's most devastating hacks and how to prevent them. Using their proven methodology, the authors reveal how to locate and patch system vulnerabilities. The book includes new coverage of ISO images, wireless and RFID attacks, Web 2.0 vulnerabilities, anonymous hacking tools, Ubuntu, Windows Server 2008, mobile devices, and more. Enter now!
