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Firefox Goes for World Download Record

Posted by samzenpus on from the record-for-the-lamest-marketing-campaign dept.

Kelson writes "For the upcoming release of Firefox, Mozilla is preparing Download Day 2008: a campaign to set a world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. Participants are asked to pledge to download Firefox 3 on the day that it's launched. The exact date hasn't been scheduled yet, but everything seems on track for June."

16 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Perhaps not the cleverest plan... by Apatharch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are they trying to kill their own servers or what?

    1. Re:Perhaps not the cleverest plan... by QuantumPete · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's like inviting a DDOS attack. I suppose it has the dual merit of setting world record and testing their server capacity.

      --
      QuantumPete
  2. Patch Tuesday by pjt33 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's the current record? I'd expect MS service packs to set a pretty high bar. Also, how are they counting? If Debian get Firefox 3 through into testing on the day (which I doubt), would an install via aptitude count, or are they only counting direct downloads from Mozilla?

    1. Re:Patch Tuesday by Crock23A · · Score: 5, Funny

      I bet WOW patches are high ranking.

    2. Re:Patch Tuesday by EvilRyry · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, but people _need_ to download the WoW patches as soon as they come out to continue to feed their addictive whereas Windows users are usually (or should be) scared to download the newest service pack when it first comes out.

    3. Re:Patch Tuesday by pablomme · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yup. They say they're going for 5M downloads. Firefox 2 got 1.6M on its first day. Says so here

      --
      The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
    4. Re:Patch Tuesday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Zero words:

  3. So guys... by thedrx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Get your botnets ready :)

  4. followed by most rollbacks to version 2... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    because many popular plugins are not 3.0 ready :-(

  5. Yeah! by SpanishInquisition0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go for the record Mozilla! If you get it, you might even get a place right next to the Most Marshmallows Stuffed Into A Person's Mouth record!

  6. Re:I pledge not to download it by anboni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You clearly haven't worked with Fx3 yet. At first I was skeptical about the new smart bookmarks and address bar, but now that I've used it for a month or two (starting with beta 2) I'm quite pleased with it. The address bar basically does exactly the same as it always has, except now it actually does an on the fly substring search in your history instead of just giving an arbitrarily sorted list of previously visited sites. I would dare say this is one of the biggest improvements to the web browsing experience in the last several years.

  7. Only the windows downloads by poeidon1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    will be counted most probably. I dont know of many linux users who download directly from mozilla website. Most would use a package from their distribution which generally is not available on the same day (and even if it is, how will they count those downloads).

    --
    They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee
  8. "The worst PR is no PR." by Sturdy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they set a record - they'll be in the news.

    If they are so successful that the servers go down temporarily - they'll definitely be in the news.

    As you can see, just submitting the idea has put them in the news. This is a great idea for a company with growing market share.

  9. Make a big circle with a big marker. by BForrester · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm marking "Download Day" on my calendar right now.

    I have a big circle around 2008, and a thin one around 2009 too, just in case the news gets any more vague.

  10. Press = good by Nerdposeur · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not to disparage Mozilla, but lately it seems like they've been a mite too concerned with press releases.

    I think this is a cool idea. There are still lots of people who don't know there are other browsers in existence; when they open IE they say they're opening "the internet." Anything that makes the news and makes them aware of alternate browsers is good - especially if it's "hey this thing is really popular." For many people, that's the best argument for trying it.

    Mozilla seems to have done pretty well by harnessing the power of fanatic users so far - remember the big newspaper ads? And check out the "pledge map" on the site. Think how proud you'd be to see that you're one of a very few people in your country who has pledged to download it. Kind of a mix of national pride and geek pride.

    Every web developer's dream is a world where all users have more standards-compliant browsers, and IE is forced to follow suit. I say hooray for almost anything that makes that closer to reality.
  11. Opera publicity? by Nerdposeur · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If Opera has so many great features so far ahead of everyone else, why is its usage still somewhere around 1% on a good day? If Opera can figure that out, maybe they'd get somewhere.

    Maybe they need more silly publicity stunts like this one.