Mozilla Add-Ons Surpass 1 Billion Downloads

[dhilipkumar]

Mozilla Add-Ons

Mozilla, the maker of the popular open source Web browser Firefox, has surpassed 1 billion add-ons downloaded. The add-on downloads are separate from the number of times Firefox has been downloaded, but it is still an impressive number for Mozilla and shows that it is a major software player.

The numbers reflect the amount of downloads from addons.mozilla.org. And, perhaps more impressively, the company has only been keeping track of add-on downloads since 2005. Writing on the Mozilla blog, Justin Scott, points out that the number of downloads in the wild is probably higher than the 1 billion the company estimates.

"This number only includes downloads from addons.mozilla.org, but as many add-ons are hosted elsewhere, we can be sure the actual number is even higher," Scott wrote.

Scott estimates that the number of add-ons being downloaded hovers at about 1.5 million per day and increasing.

The visibility of Mozilla and Firefox has increased over the past year, thanks in large part to their marketing drive surrounding Support Firefox's drive to raise awareness about the browser by setting a Guinness World Record for most downloaded software ever.Support Firefox turned out to be a socially driven campaign built on the foundation of avid users and has served to increase the Web browsers market share to nearly 20 percent. That increase has come mostly at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Scott, to his credit, recognizes the importance of creating a viable ecosystem of add-ons and products, in addition to the social initiatives the company has harnessed.

"This amazing feat was made possible by the huge community of add-on users, developers, and enthusiasts, as well as non-Firefox applications that embrace Mozilla add-ons like Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Sunbird, Komodo, Flock, and Songbird, to name a few," wrote Scott.

Granted, many of the extensions were likely downloaded by a user, used once and forgotten about. Even still, it shows the reach that Mozilla and Firefox have come to command in the Web browsing market.