RSSFirefox hits 1 billion downloads!
By Tim Conneally | Published July 31, 2009, 11:47 AM
Firefox total downloads: millions
Firefox has hit its milestone billionth download of all time. To celebrate the occasion, Mozilla will be launching onebillionplusyou.com on Monday, a hub for information about the achievement, and a place for Firefox users to show their love for the browser by uploading pictures of themselves representing Firefox across the globe (though they'll have a tough time beating this guy.)
Firefox 1.0 launched in November 2004 as the secure, open source alternative to market dominating Internet Explorer, which held nearly 90% market share at the time. One year later, Firefox had already attained 10% browser share. Since mid 2008, Firefox has held nearly 30% of the market, while Internet Explorer has dropped to around 60%.
Last year, Mozilla aimed at setting a world record for downloads with the release of Firefox 3.0. and set it with more than 8 million downloads in 24 hours.
yes firefox is primary users are the webmasters, firefox can't beat the Internet Explorer browsers, but, we'll see :-)
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|Firefox is my primary browser but does the number matter anymore than anything else being downloaded. It's the being used bit that makes it important.
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|Keep on keepin' on, Sir Firefox! The World is your/our oyster!
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|There are probably people who game with this counter idea. Personally, I resist the temptation of downloading FF for the sake of increasing the hit count.
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|I sense that firefox is being cheater! I am sure some people who downloaded firefox often on one PC.
I once download firefox, but throw it away already. I hate it so much. I already tested yahoo mail on firefox, but failed.
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|*laughing*
...and what about the IT admins who downloaded it once to install on hundreds of PCs?
..and what about updates?
...and what about portable versions?
...and what about "filehippo" downloads?
Point? The numbers are pretty meaningless but it still gives the FF crowd a warm fuzzy, so why not let them enjoy it?
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|When i fix computers, most systems i see have FF installed now. Over the past few years, i must have downloaded it several times.
I'm using 2.x right now (didn't upgrade because i can't find an IE theme for 3.5, currently have Looks Familiar theme on 2.0.0.20).
I'll admit, when i first installed it, i was skeptical it would beat IE. I'd installed it just to use the User Agent Switcher plug in for a website. Didn't plan on keeping it, but now i can't live without it!
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|I know there is a IE8 skin for Firefox 3.5 called myFireFox
https://addons.mozilla.o...n-US/firefox/addon/4129
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|Good to see a good browser getting downloaded that much.
But what versions is counted?
(Certainly 1 billion downloads isn't going to be 100 zealots doing their thing.)
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|I am one of the portable Firefox users which is downloaded from a different site. I guess they haven't included that. All said - competition is vital as it makes developers get the most from their product. Well done to the Firefox team (and John Haller and his team for portable Firefox), a great product.
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|Firefox and Safari both have a problem displaying tables properly on certain websites. Junk.
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|Maybe this is backward. The site designers have a problem following standards.
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|I'm wondering what is counted in this. Is it from before 1.0? Do they count Beta/RC builds? Is it only downloads of release builds since 1.0?
Most importantly, do download counts really matter? I'm a happy Firefox user, and have certainly contributed quite a few ticks to that counter, but 1 billion downloads is pretty meaningless, market share is much more important.
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|This is from 1.0 forwar and does not count automatic updates. These are use-initiated downloads.
And yes, this does matter. This is one metric our community can directly engage with through our downloads affiliate program at spreadfirefox.com. You don't get a user without a download.
Marketshare (usage / page views) is equally useful. So is absolute users which is at about 300 million active users.
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|How many are upgrades or re-installs? How many zealots clicking download angain & again, just like the 'padded' voting we commonly see on polls?
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|How many people who own more than one computer or system administrators download Firefox once and install it on multiple computers.
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|i have to admit, i've downloaded it more than once... not on purpose just trying to fix some things :P
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|"How many zealots clicking download angain & again, just like the 'padded' voting we commonly see on polls?"
I'd wager to guess that it's very few. How can you pad 1 billion downloads. You can't.
I'd ask the other direction. How many sysadmins downloaded it once and installed it on 10 machines or 1000 machines or 100000 machines (like IBM did) ?
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|Now stop and think the amount of times that IE must have been downloaded or installed.
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|yeah, kind of boggles the mind
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|IE doesn't get downloaded an awful lot. It ships on every new WIndows PC or is pushed on people through Windows Update. Firefox isn't counting either of those kinds of distribution techniques in its number.
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|good to see a nice uptake for an excellent browser
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|My friend just installed on my computer this new portal to the web called Ti-Took. It's pretty neat since it's based on Google Chrome, but with additional security features and online bookmarking services all in one. Check this out. http://www.titook.net/ . To create an account, the invitation code is: iluvtitook.
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|I tried Ti-Took. It's quite an amazing web browser and web browser platform. Works with Firefox, Chrome and IE. It's the fact that I could browse privately all the time that is awesome. The integrated bookmarks import and social bookmark is very handy as well. Firefox fans, go ahead, Ti-Took (titook.net) is for you.
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