Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads

Mozilla is reveling in the phenomenal success of Firefox. The overwhelming response from internet users has established Firefox as the second most popular browser in the world. Now, Mozilla has added a fresh piece of notional silverware, marking yet another real world triumph, to its imaginary trophy cabinet. Mozilla announced earlier in the day that Firefox has surpassed the 1 billion downloads mark.

Half of those downloads have come in the past 17 months, a period that witnessed the launch of Firefox 3 and 3.5. Though savants expect Firefox to benefit from Microsoft’s decision to release Windows 7 with a browser ballot in Europe, Firefox architect Mike Connor doesn’t share their views. “The choice [when installing Windows] would be weird. There’s no good UI [user interface] for that,” Connor had told PC Pro in an interview earlier this year.