Firefox 3 sets a Guinness World Record!

[Jay_Bee]

I just got this e-mail from mozilla!


We did it!

We set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads.

You are now part of a World Record and the proud owner of the best version of Firefox yet!

Don't forget to download your very own certificate for helping set a Guinness World Record.

Cool! :)

[Canis familiaris]

I would have preferred if they set up the world record for number of bugfixes in a day.

[aysiu]

There wasn't a previously held record, so of course they "set" it.

[cardinals_fan]

There wasn't a previously held record, so of course they "set" it.
+1

It doesn't matter how many people downloaded FF3, Mozilla would have won anyway.

[maniacmusician]

+1

It doesn't matter how many people downloaded FF3, Mozilla would have won anyway.
yup, that's definitely true. But considering what they were originally aiming for (3 million?), they at least exceeded expectations.

Not to say I really advocated getting people to download their software for the sake of setting a record; it got a lot of attention and publicity, but none of it was really harnessed in a useful way. I can respect wanting to attract more users, but they could have done it in a much more productive way.

[FyreBrand]

yup, that's definitely true. But considering what they were originally aiming for (3 million?), they at least exceeded expectations.

Not to say I really advocated getting people to download their software for the sake of setting a record; it got a lot of attention and publicity, but none of it was really harnessed in a useful way. I can respect wanting to attract more users, but they could have done it in a much more productive way.Agreed. They also disabled auto-updater during that period too so you had to download it from their site. Too much hype in my opinion. It's a much better browser now than ever before. I don't see the need to hype it. It sells itself now.

[aysiu]

I doubt most Firefox users actually participated in Download Day. Most Firefox users I know are still using 2 and have no idea 3 came out. A bunch of power users decided to do multiple downloads. Considering how large Firefox's market share is, the number of downloads is actually quite small.

[maniacmusician]

I doubt most Firefox users actually participated in Download Day. Most Firefox users I know are still using 2 and have no idea 3 came out. A bunch of power users decided to do multiple downloads. Considering how large Firefox's market share is, the number of downloads is actually quite small.
That's true. To be fair, I did get my parents to try it; my dad loves it and is never going back. My mother couldn't care less. I'm sure that there were other cases like mine too, but I don't doubt that the majority of it comes from fanatics doing multiple downloads from different computers.

[aysiu]

I'm one of those fanatics. I downloaded to Windows at work, Ubuntu at home, and Mac on my wife's laptop. So I'm responsible for three of those 8 million downloads.

[maniacmusician]

I'm one of those fanatics. I downloaded to Windows at work, Ubuntu at home, and Mac on my wife's laptop. So I'm responsible for three of those 8 million downloads.
That's not fanatic; I've seen posts on other forums indicating that high school kids were trying to download it to every computer at their school, their friends' computers, etc.

[phaed]

it got a lot of attention and publicity, but none of it was really harnessed in a useful way. I can respect wanting to attract more users, but they could have done it in a much more productive way.

As they say, any publicity is good publicity.

[aysiu]

As they say, any publicity is good publicity.
But the publicity in this case wasn't what it could have been. It was rather a quick blip, and it showed up mainly in the tech news - an audience already well aware of Firefox's existence.

[bmac]

I agree, this was a missed opportunity. Media announcements and hype should have been more focused. Just a bad marketing strategy.

I'm aware of some individuals that went to our local senior center and downloaded it to every machine. Unfortunately, most of the seniors didn't have a clue how to run it. I was asked to spend time at the center teaching them how to use the newly installed app...

All this Just to increase the potential of Mozilla setting a record that never existed before. Oh well, I really did enjoy the time spent....

[phaed]

But the publicity in this case wasn't what it could have been. It was rather a quick blip, and it showed up mainly in the tech news - an audience already well aware of Firefox's existence.

The only sense in which Download Day was bad was that 8 million people received a major security vulnerability, rather than 1.6 million. Good thing it wasn't 40 million.

You say it could have been handled differently. What would you have done differently?

[cardinals_fan]

I would have preferred if they set up the world record for number of bugfixes in a day.
I SO agree with this :)

[doorknob60]

I printed out a certificate :-D I'm gonna try and think of somewhere creative to put it :-P

[chucky chuckaluck]

let's see firefox roll an orange down the sidewalk with its nose (we know it's not going to set a record for bug fixes, as someone else so cleverly suggested).

[luisito]

I thought it was going to be the largest amount of ram used by a single program.