Since the release of Firefox 3 is right around the corner it comes as no surprise that Mozilla is trying to rally the troops community. Back in 2006 they celebrated World Firefox Day by getting people to invite their friends to try Firefox, and right about the time Firefox 2 launched Mozilla gave the much deserved acknowledgements. This is just one of the several campaigns Mozilla has come up with to help spread the Firefox browser, and it’s obvious that they know how to harness the power of the people.
This year they are doing things a little differently, and they are hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the number of downloads in 24 hours. As I sit here writing this they have over 125,000 people who have pledged to download Firefox 3 in the first 24 hours, which Mozilla says will happen sometime in June 2008. It shouldn’t be hard for them to crush the record… mostly because the record is currently non-existent. They are shooting for 5 million downloads, which is possible since Firefox 2 received 1.6 million downloads on the first day back in 2006. But they will essentially be making it in the record books no matter what.
If you are participating there is one thing you should know if you want your download to count. You actually have to download the full installation, and the download must complete. Updating the browser will not count towards the record, but then again they probably won’t release the automatic update on the first day. They’ll be using a cookie system to try and weed out any duplicate downloads.
You can help spread the word about the Download Day by placing any of these banners on your own site, or in the signature section of your emails. Oh, and there will be a certificate the you can print on Download Day to commemorate the event. 
Firefox World Record Homepage
Thanks to Natmaster and Max for the tips!
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Tags: Firefox, Freeware, Software, Browser, Downloads, Firefox 3, Mozilla
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I like FF okay, but I still use Opera for 98% of my browsing needs. Question: How many downloads did M$ serve up when XP SP3 was released? Or SP1 or SP2? Seems somewhat dubious that 5 million downloads would set a record…
Yeah, but those kinds of things from MS are automatic updates, Mozilla is going for a record of deliberate downloads. As the article stated, using the built in updater on an older version of FF won’t count towards their total.
And M$ never applied for the record apparently:D
I’m going to do my part and inform all I can. Do what you can to overthrow the oppressive regime that is IE!!
I’m sure Microsoft would have the record right now if it already existed. If I recall when Microsoft released the first public Beta of Vista they capped it at a million downloads or so. I think it only took them a few hours to hit that mark.
Exactly! It’s not a record until you make it one.
It would take quite a few days for the official FF3 to appear in the Ubuntu repository. It took days for RC 1 to appear. in fact i had to add few new lines in the apt source list to get it going. Too bad that linux users would have to wait for their respective repositories to get updated. I am planning to join the party by manually installing the tarball the moment it is released.