Nearly 8 Million Downloads on the counter. Those are the unofficial results so far from Mozilla as people around the world downloaded the newest release of their browser - Firefox 3.

There were a few blunders. As I pointed out yesterday and CNN later reported, the traffic to Mozilla’s download sites was so intense that it took down their servers for approximately 2 hours at the beginning of the release as 9,000 copies a minute were downloaded. After 5 hours they had delivered as many copies of Firefox 3 as Firefox 2 got in the entire first day of it’s launch - 1.6 million.

Article: Firefox fans celebrate release of new browser

When the sites did become available it was difficult to tell where to download the new release as the pages still prominently displayed Firefox 2, with a link to Firefox 3’s release candidates. So I, as well as many others, downloaded the latest release candidate - RC3.

But aside from the technical fumbles the day went brilliantly. A good show of marketing might on Mozilla’s part. Now Mozilla’s webpages are updated, proudly showcasing their newest work - Firefox 3.

For those who mistakenly downloaded RC3 before the page was updated do not fear, as apparently RC3 was re-released as Firefox 3, and hopefully Mozilla will include downloads of that as part of their numbers in the final attempt at the world record.

Article: Firefox 3 Identical to RC3

8 Million Downloads! Good job, Mozilla.

It is officially Download Day for Mozilla Firefox 3, your chance to help set a world record for most software downloads in a single day by downloading Mozilla’s Firefox 3 official release.

Or it would be your chance, if it didn’t appear as though Mozilla’s websites are down. I’m attempting to upgrade my browser, but have yet to get either GetFirefox.com or SpreadFirefox.com to load. Meanwhile, Mozilla.com/ appears to be working but it is slow and does not seem to be updated as of yet.

Today is Firefox Download Day, but Mozilla’s servers appear to be taking the beating of a lifetime so be forewarned it could take you a bit to get through to a download site.

Good luck, Mozilla, apparently the internet is with you!

Google, like the link is even necessary, has apparently changed their favicon suddenly and shockingly, and it’s a rather interesting look into the power of branding.

A favicon is a 16×16 pixel image saved in a special icon format with the extension .ico. When uploaded to a site, typically the main directory, it will be shown in browser address bars and tabs and becomes a brandable mark for that site. Typically a company would use their logo, or part of it, to reinforce the logo brand such as what Google has done. For ages, Google’s favicon has been nearly as iconic as their logo. The trademark uppercase G from their logo with a colored border.

As Ionut Alex Chitu notes on the GoogleSystem Blog (not affiliated with Google):

Google’s new favicon is less cheerful and comforting, but it makes a lot of sense: the small g is a symbol for infinity (∞). A googol (10¹⁰⁰) is just a poor approximation for the huge amount of information that needs to be indexed, organized and made useful by Google.

Will this hurt Google? No, probably not.

In fact it will probably be some great publicity for a time as people sit up and take notice, writing blog posts such as this one to reinforce the Google brand. It goes to show that there is a power to branding beyond the subliminal reinforcement. When you’re as big as Google, you can mess with it, and by doing so you tug on that reinforcement of the brand and get into peoples heads - as well as getting some great, cheap advertising out of the deal.

Yes, when you are as big as Google you can nonchalantly mess with people’s heads. That is the power of a good brand.

Just don’t make the mistake Coca Cola did and change your formula. That, definately, is a recipe for disaster.

Update: Google has finally posted a public message about their new favicon on their official Blog. The includes a nice sampling of the designs they considered for the new favicon as well as an allusion to Dr. Suess.

Article:One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Technorati Tags: Google, Favicon, Marketing, Branding

Are you familiar with the search queries your site is indexed for? Apparently I wasn’t, as I just found that thanks to the insane amount of spam in the live shoutbox I have here on Four Points Cardinal my site is indexed very well in certain searches. Some of which are rated X.

According to Google webmaster tools Foponet is ranked 5th for the search term ‘online pharmacuticals‘ [sic], 10th for ‘FleshLight movies’ (Adult Related, not safe for work), and 1st on ‘cardinal pharmacuticals‘. Luckily my ranking has dropped in the Fleshlight movies search, but I’ve moved up to 3rd in online pharmacuticals.

Fortunately, Foponet is also ranked 3rd for the search term ‘Kubuntu Boot Disk‘, a search that has potential.

Check out Google’s Webmaster Tools feature to see where your site is being shown.

I installed Scribefire last week, a Firefox extension that packs a punch for bloggers. It adds a new lightweight blogging interface to Firefox, allowing you to post to a blog without logging into the back end by adding a new posting interface directly into Firefox.

Scribefire supports Wordpress, Movable Type, Drupal, Textpattern, Roller, Metablog API, Blogger, and Tumblr by using an API built into these scripts. I have to admit, I didn’t even know Wordpress, the blogging software I use, had such an API but it is certainly a pleasant, and useful, surprise.

If you have a blog I strongly recommend a look at ScribeFire.

Firefox is endorsing a new plugin called adblock plus. This one little plugin is causing a stir amongst internet advertisers and those who would block them.

From WhyFirefoxisBlocked.com.

The Mozilla Foundation and its Commercial arm, the Mozilla Corporation, has allowed and endorsed Ad Block Plus, a plug-in that blocks advertisement on web sites and also prevents site owners from blocking people using it. Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers. Numerous web sites exist in order to provide quality content in exchange for displaying ads. Accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing. Millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software. Many site owners therefore install scripts that prevent people using ad blocking software from accessing their site. That is their right as the site owner to insist that the use of their resources accompanies the presence of the ads.

The argument from the surfers is that the advertising on the internet is intrusive at best and malicious at worst. So a plugin has been developed which allows Firefox users who have it installed to block ads. Software like this has been in existence for years, but certain advertisers have taken up arms against adblock plus because not only is Mozilla endorsing this plugin, but they have no means to block the visitors who are using this plugin.

Some have gone so far as to completely block users who are surfing with Firefox.

Completely blocking Firefox users from visiting your website is ridiculous. For one, it is too easy to circumvent. Another plugin would allow Firefox users to mask their user agent - the variable that tells your site what browser the visitor is using - so that they could appear to be using any browser. Or they could use IE Tab, another plugin for Firefox, which would make the browser load a page using the Internet Explorer engine and thus make the user appear to be surfing with Internet Explorer. There is no way to prevent users of adblock plus from accessing your content - at least not 100%.

On the other hand, completely blocking ads is ridiculous too. Some things, like aggressive popups and malicious ads, need to be blocked. Otherwise they compromise your computer and put you at risk. Firefox already does this though, and it does it well. There is no real value in the plugin adblock plus. Except, of course, if you want to be smug.

‘The internet is free’ some would argue. But not for the publishers. There are costs to putting a website on the internet. Time, and money. And as we all know Time equals Money. Any website that gets more then 10,000 hits a day would need it’s own server. The average server costs about $100 a month. Then there is the cost of the scripts and web design. Programmers can do these things themselves, but it takes them Time - which equals money. Then there is the maintenance of the site. It takes time and dedication to get a good website off the ground, and to keep it going.

And this is all over the internet. Most of the sites you see online are either funded by ads or, if it hasn’t broken even yet, out of the publisher’s pocket. The internet is sustained by the revenue generated by advertising it and without this revenue the internet would fail. Myspace would not be online if there was no money being brought in to support it’s massive growth. Neither would Digg or Fark. These sites are supported by the ads they serve.

Some ads do need to be blocked. The same ads Firefox is already blocking. But to use adblock plus to block ads like Google Adwords or a banner or two on somebody’s blog for the sake of being smug and righteous is naive at best. You may not click on the ads you see online, but at least understand the economics behind it.