June 18, 2008 (09:22):Just woken up. The counter has already hit 5 million, with the USA claiming 2 million of those downloads alone. Germany is still putting the rest of the world to shame (excluding the USA)! I thought the downloads per minute was slowly descending, point by point, but then it started to shoot up again. Would love to see a graph of the counter and downloads per minute to see the distribution.

June 17, 2008 (23:21):Everything seems to be running smoothly and we currently have just over 1.5 million downloads and a speed of about 7000 downloads per minute. The USA is in the lead with over 450 thousand downloads, followed by Germany with over 130 thousand downloads and the UK trailing behind at over 80 thousand downloads (apparently lower than Spain, which I find hard to believe). The aim is for at least 5 million.

June 17, 2008 (21:42):Most things have been sorted out now and you can download Firefox 3 directly from the Mozilla website.

June 17, 2008 (19:37):Download servers are up and the websites are slowly coming back up. There is a download counter up as well. I've just got my download from Mozilla Europe and have just installed it.

June 17, 2008 (18:27):Apparently something went wrong as it has been 26 minutes since it was supposed to start, and all of the Mozilla websites did hit the dust. I will keep you updated. You can get real-time updates from Mozilla Air though.

Mozilla is inviting the whole world to pledge and download the release version of Firefox 3 tomorrow. The hope is to set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours; and you could be part of it. Still using Internet Explorer? Dump it and join the worldwide effort to download the latest and greatest browser on the net!

There is currently no record set for the most software downloads in 24 hours and so Mozilla have spoken to Guinness World Record to initiate a download count for the full version of Firefox 3. Downloads will only be counted if they are completely transferred from the web server to your computer, and if that computer hasn't downloaded before. So invite your friends, family and co-workers to download it as well.

Every download will be logged in order to take a recount and exclude any duplicates or errors. However, the Guinness World Record's website and the printed version of the book receives many record attempt requests and cannot accommodate everyone. Mozilla hopes to catch their eye by making this a spectacular record with millions of downloads and great Download Fests at schools and places of work.

It is so simple to get involved: just pledge to download right now and then as soon as Firefox 3 is available, you will be notified via e-mail and then all you have to do is download it, preferably from the Download Day Headquarters. You'll even get a customized certificate by downloading from the Download Day Headquarters; aren't they nice?

Hopefully, we will be able to see the results of the record and whether or not we have officially set one about a week after the download day, this is because judges and the Guinness World Records team need to review the download logs and validate the record attempt.

The only rules are that you must only download one copy of Firefox per computer (though this doesn't mean that you only have one chance to download it, but your second download just won't count towards the record). The Firefox team ask that you refrain from downloading more than once, creating download bots or any other mechanism that could be classed as cheating and therefore invalidate the record.

So cancel everything you are doing tomorrow, sit back, relax and casually surf the internet with your brand new, shiny version of Firefox 3. Download Day starts at 18:00 Greenwich Meantime on Tuesday, June 17th. For local times see time and date conversions.