Chicago (IL) - Mozilla has set June 17 as the official release day for Firefox 3. The introduction of the new browser marks the beginning of a race for the title of the fastest browser on the market. With more than one million people already pledged to download Firefox 3 on the first day of its release, Firefox 3 could set a Guinness World Record as the most downloaded software with the first 24 hours of launch.

Mozilla has set next Tuesday, June 17, as the official release day for the upgraded Firefox 3 browser, following months of beta testing and release candidates that have been publicly available to users over the past few weeks. In a strategy that has turned out to become a very efficient viral marketing campaign, Mozilla urged users to download the browser the on launch day to take Firefox 3 into the book of Guinness World Records as the most downloaded software on the first day of release. The campaign, dubbed Download Day, has attracted the interest of more than one million users so far. Firefox 3 will be shipped for both Mac and Windows on the same day (and no, there won’t be a Linux version on day 1).

Firefox 3 has already won critical acclaim for its reliability and noticeable performance improvements. It Besides code optimization, Firefox 3 brings numerous new features, including one-click bookmarking and tag support in bookmarks, smart location bar, the ability to save and restore browser sessions, smart zoom that enlarges all web page content (not just text) and significantly improved protection against phishing attacks and malware. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3 has 15,000 tweaks and enhancements when compared to Firefox 2.

The official release of Firefox appears to be also launching the beginning the battle for the fastest browser on the market. The JavaScript engine seems to be the primary battlefield for now, as the scripting interpreter optimization directly translates to user-visible speed gains in Web 2.0 sites and Web applications that run faster and show more a responsive user interface. Firefox 3 and Safari 4 are already competing in this discipline with optimized JavaScript implementations. Apple seeded Safari 4 a few days ago at the company’s developer's conference with an expected ship date around the time when Mac OS X Snow Leopard will become available.

Internet Explorer, currently in its beta 1 phase, will get a second beta in August and see a possible final release in the fourth quarter of this year. So far, we were not able to see any speed gains in Microsoft’s latest browser, but at least Microsoft claims that IE8 beta 1 is more than twice as fast as IE7 in some applications and just slight trails Firefox 3 beta 3 (which did not have the latest JavaScript performance enhancements) and Safari 3.1 in terms of speed.

The most recent Net Applications survey puts Firefox’ market share at 18.41%, followed by Safari, which captured 6.2%. Both browsers increased market share at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer which is still the dominant software on the market but appears to be caught in a slow but steady decline. IE is currently estimated to hold a 73.75% share.

yes most download

Jun 12, 2008 10:34     

could be a most downloaded software..but then again in the same token... they are shipping out way more than 1 million of new computer each day and every single one of them has a internet explorer 7 that comes with vista.... how many newbies know to go get firefox or if they had ever heard of them? do you see any coporate use firefox? you use what you use at work... And with the download..how many actually stays with firefox or just download to test it and uninstall them?

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MOZILLA FTW

Jun 12, 2008 12:03     

FIREFOX FTW
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RE: Yes most download

Jun 12, 2008 15:08     

Eh, you've got a point about the shallow victory of being "Most Downloaded", but it'd be a cool record to break. There are some larger companies that use Firefox as their standard. Confluence (a pretty successful Wiki software company) is big on Firefox.
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RE: yes most download

Jun 12, 2008 15:44     

wow, I agree with what you're saying. Microsoft is using its O/S monopoly to control other computer software segments such as Office, programming, and browser software. Most newbie and mid-level users don't really need more than your basic browser features so they probably won't search for another browser. Personally, I needed another browser because I was having problems with IE. I use Firefox 2.0.0.11 and I no longer have any freezing problems. I am satisfied with it and will dl FF3 after they work out all the bugs.

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Actually, I googled, there is no record yet....we s...

Jun 13, 2008 04:42     

Actually, I googled, there is no record yet....we set the bar. And at my school district here with thousands of computers, most have FF on them.
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RE: yes most download

Jun 13, 2008 05:55     

Definitely a good point, but there are a lot of other sources that use Firefox. A lot of business's and school's use Firefox, even more so because of the Mac influence in Schools. I know June 17th it will be implemented on about 2500 Machines at my district alone, and from going to conferences I know our district is not alone in this choice. Unfortunately that will only turn into about ~25 downloads from my district because it is not downloaded on each individual machine. Will it beat the number of browsers being used on a given day, of course not, it's really near impossible seeing how, like you pointed out, every new PC comes shipped with IE.

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