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Congrats, citizens of Mozilla! Firefox population surpasses that of the United States
There's a little numerical kung fu that Mozilla uses to calculate that figure, and while it might not be 100% accurate the bottom line is that there are a crapload of Firefox users out there. And all those little foxes keep chewing away at Internet Explorer's browser-share pie.
Mozilla Europe honcho Tristan Nitot was understandably enthusiastic about the recent growth. Fall typically means an uptick for Firefox. Nitot told ZDNet, "Usually it's a mixture of back-to-school and people getting new computers and installing the latest version. This boosts our numbers every year."
Clearly, the next logical step is for Firefox users to form an organized state and start drafting up a constitution and electing officials. We'll also need a flag. There's already a Mozilla army, right? That'll save some time and resources.
*hastily Photoshopped chart sort of courtesy Wikipedia - though they have yet to officially recognize Mozilla as a country.
[via ZDNet]
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentskojo87Oct 27th 2009 10:29PM
i would like to know how they calculate it. because i know i have probably downloaded Firefox 30 times what with all my computers and reinstalling Operating Systems. i hope they don't count every single download.
PhilOct 30th 2009 3:52PM
"Firefox checks for new versions every 24 hours, when it's running, and when it checks, it pings the Mozilla server. We count the number of pings."
BTW It would be interesting to know how this is affecting IE´s shares...
Got it :D
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-200807-200910
2late2dieOct 27th 2009 11:38PM
@kojo87: Why not? Apple certainly counts every single app downloads, whether it's an update, a fresh download, or a re-download, towards its 2 billion, or whatever it is now, number? Not to mention that every fart, flashlight, pic-of-the-day "app" counts towards the total they so proudly advertise.
I apologize for the rant, but I do think that it's really not so much the number itself but rather what it symbolizes, which is "a crapload of Firefox users out there", as it was eloquently put by Mr. Mathews :)
It would be interesting to see (if anyone were to keep track, and I'm sure somebody will) of how Microsoft's new "browser ballot" screen for the EU version of Win7 will affect the browser landscape.
kojo87Oct 28th 2009 3:40AM
i suppose that makes sense. and i suppose it would be pretty much impossible to determine individual users (unless they only counted unique IP addresses but even then it wouldn't work) either way it is great that this many people use Firefox. it still boggles my mind how many people i know who don't know anything other than Internet Explorer. of those people you would not believe how many people just call it "The Internet" and look all confused when i say IE. then again these are the same people with simulated beer pong, lighter and fart apps on their iPhones. i think i need new friends...