Firefox 4 has become the fastest downloaded browser to date, shattering previous records and even surpassing Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) in the first 24 hours after its release on Tuesday.
The new browser from Mozilla is leaving Microsoft's IE9 somewhat red-faced, after IE9 boasted about its 2.35 million downloads in its first 24 hours last week.
Firefox 4 not only beat the IE9 figure more than two times over (with 7.1 million downloads in the same time frame), but now already garners an estimated 2% of the world's Web browsing market.
It is speculated that one of the reasons for IE9's poor performance in comparison to Firefox 4 is due to the fact that the Mozilla browser supports Windows XP, unlike IE9.
Firefox 4 offers new features including the 'Awesome Bar', which automatically completes possible matches from users' browsing history, bookmarked sites and open tabs (much like the Google search engine).
The browser also has a new user interface for quicker and easier browsing. Other features include the 'Stay Sync' feature, password manager, form complete, pop-up blocker, integrated Web search, session restore, spell checking and one-click bookmarking.
The non-profit Mozilla Foundation released its first Firefox 1.0 browser in November 2004, and has been gaining popularity ever since. Statistics show Firefox dominates the market, with a sizable 42.4%, while IE has dropped to 26.5% and Google's Chrome is at 24.1%.
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