TechBlog: Mozilla hits its Firefox 3 download goal, and then some

Description

When Mozilla announced that Firefox 3 would be available on Tuesday, June 17, the software developers also came up with a smart way to promote its release. They wanted a Guinness World Record for the most-downloaded software in a 24-hour period. The goal: 5 million copies of Firefox 3 dispatched to users' computers.

A little silly? Sure, but it apparently did the trick. The browser was released formally at noon CDT, and Mozilla's servers initially cratered under the load of folks trying to grab FF3 all at once. The clock for the record was reset at 1:18 p.m. CDT, when the download site became available again, and even though access continued to be sporadic -- particularly Tuesday night, when the servers were down for quite a while -- Mozilla more than met its goal.

At this writing, about four hours before the end of the 24-hour record period, more than 6.1 million copies have been downloaded. You can see the results, country by country, at Mozilla's World Record page.

Original URL

http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/06/mozilla_hits_its_firefox_3_download_goal_and.html

http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/06/mozilla_hits_its_firefox_3_download_goal_and.html