Firefox Scores 50 Million Downloads The open-source browser crosses another milestone, slowly eroding IE's market presense. Pedro Hernandez
On Friday, at 8:58 AM Pacific time to be exact, Firefox clocked its 50 millionth download (not including upgrades). The accomplishment, say advocates, is proof that the browser is steadily making inroads into the mainstream even as its growth slows.
Although Microsoft's Internet Explorer still reigns supreme, 86 percent according to OneStat, Firefox seems to have caught on with one type of Internet user: the blog watcher.
Perhaps as a result to its built-in RSS bookmark functionality, among other factors, the program is quickly becoming the browser of choice for a certain type of Internet user: the blog watcher. For this group, the browser's imprint on statistics pages is disproportionately higher considering that it has yet to climb past the 10 percent mark in general usage.
Earlier this month, Boing Boing noted that IE fell to second place to 35.1 percent versus Firefox's 38.4 percent, Apple's Safari browser placed a distant third at 8.8 percent. The difference is more pronounced at Lifehacker, which also notes a higher proportion of Firefox usage at the gadget blog Gizmodo and at blogger-turned-pro site kottke.org.
This relatively rapid ascent is also due, in large part, to the attention it has garnered on SpreadFirefox.com and Mozilla's own site, both of which have been touting the browser's resistance to the Web vulnerabilities that have plagued IE and its security-enhancing capabilities such as a built-in popup blocker.
