If you're following @FirefoxCounter on Twitter then you'll have noticed that the Mozilla browser organisation is seeking publicity for a remarkable achievement: it will soon have been downloaded a billion times. This will be celebrated at a new site, onebillionplusyou.com
The Spread Firefox site is appealing for photos. It says:
We want to show everyone how global and diverse our community has become. So we're asking for photos of you, our community members, to display on our Billion Downloads campaign page. We'll be launching the campaign site soon, but we want to have lots of photos ready for the launch.
There are roughly a billion PCs in the world, but this doesn't mean everyone uses Firefox. The number is made up of downloads of all versions, bumped up by the fact that in earlier days, redownloading the whole browser was the only way to upgrade.
Mozilla also appreciates that it has a big opportunity to increase what it calls "engagement and retention". As of 2007, only about 25% of Firefox downloads resulted in people actively using the browser 30 days later.
Still, according to StatCounter Firefox has made impressive inroads into Internet Explorer's market share, which was around 70% just a year ago. The current score is roughly 60% IE against 30% Firefox, and Firefox's market share is said to be noticeably higher in Europe.
Indeed, on current trends, Firefox could even overtake IE in Europe. No doubt this would come as a shock to the European Commission, if it were ever to find out.
