Firefox approaches 1 billion downloads

Mozilla's Firefox browser is expected to pass the one billion download milestone this weekend. To mark the occasion Firefox has launched a dedicated website, onebillionplusyou.com, which will go live on 3 August. A Twitter account has also been set-up to count down to the milestone. > > Tell us what you think to the new Web User beta website! At the time of writing the download counter stood at 999,614,805. Downloads of the browser are occurring at a rate of between 15 and 19 every second. Mozilla released the latest version of its open source browser, Firefox 3.5, at the end of last month. A spokesperson for the company said: "Mozilla has come a very long way from the start and are very proud of this massive milestone. This accomplishment is a direct result of the continually growing Mozilla community and Firefox supporters." Mozilla set an official world record in 2008 with the launch of Firefox 3 when more than eight million people downloaded the browser in a 24-hour period. Firefox has made a major dent in Internet Explorer's market share over the past few years. The latest numbers put IE's global browser share at just over 54 per cent, while Firefox approaches 30 per cent.