JUNE 20, 2008

Firefox Rocks

For the release of its new version of the Firefox Internet Browser - version 3.0 - Mozilla decided to try to set a Guinness world record for the most software downloads in a single day. Between 2:16PM Eastern June 17th, and 11:16PM Eastern June 18th every download counted toward the goal. While there currently are no records on the books for a category like this, Firefox 2 clocked 1.6 million downloads the first day of launch in 2006.

While the official Guiness world record attempt is still under review, we do know that there were over 8 million downloads of Firefox 3 in the span of 24 hours.

What’s fascinating about all of this is that Firefox is a free, open source browser that competes head-to-head against Microsoft Internet Explorer - and it’s doing just fine. In April, while Internet Explorer had 54.8% of the total browser share to Firefox’s 39.1%, IE7 - Microsoft’s latest offering - only had a 24.9% share, meaning that Firefox was actually ahead in the battle of the browser Titans when only comparing the most up-to-date releases. 

There’s a certain irony here. It was only ten years ago last month that the so-called “browser wars” began, and rival browser provider Netscape, with the help of the U.S. government, faced Microsoft in court in an antitrust suit known as “United States v. Microsoft.” Though the decision came down against Microsoft and the judge in the case wanted the company broken up, the ruling was overturned on appeal.

The findings of fact, however, were maintained. Microsoft did, the appeals court decided, have a monopoly on on the PC operating system market and had engaged in anti-competitive practices. A lesser penalty than breaking up the company was levied in 2001, and Microsoft was allowed to keep bundling Internet Explorer with Windows - despite this being a key complaint from other browser providers regarding Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices.

But that wasn’t enough to stop Mozilla. While Internet Explorer continued to dominate the browser market for a time, the robust features and useability of Firefox, its easy add-on capability and large library of plugins, and the convenience of its tabbed browsing system (which Microsoft later imitated) have brought this upstart browser into the mainstream. It also tends to be favored by not just a few members of the tech communitity, and many of the denizens of Digg.

The massive download results are a victory for Mozilla, but a bigger victory for the open source community, proving the viability of the model in competition with the corporate big boys. And there’s another winner on this occasion - Google. Forbes writer Brian Caulfield notes Firefox’s unexpected success, and the source of its funding:

Of course, it’s easy to dismiss the importance of the Web browser. The software is free, and Microsoft crushed its only serious commercial competition, Netscape, almost a decade ago. As recently as 2005, Microsoft owned 95% of the market.

But don’t be fooled. Firefox has become one of the most important pieces of software around today as consumers shift from using their PCs to run applications living on their hard drives to a communications device able to connect with applications living on distant servers. As Saul Hansell at The New York Times pointed out, the browser is poised to unlock a slate of new applications in the years to come.

And, thanks to Google, Mozilla has plenty of money. Google funnels tens of millions dollars to Mozilla in exchange for getting for a valuable spot on the default home page of the browser preferred by the most avid Web surfers and developers.

Considering how much time most of us spend on the web, a good browser is the last thing we should take for granted.