Mozilla Firefox 3.0 sets a new world record....downloaded 8.5million times on the first day!!!

In the first 24 hours the web browser was available the software was downloaded more than eight million times, says its creator Mozilla.

Statistics from the download servers are being scrutinized to produce an official figure that will be passed to the Guinness World Record organization.

The attempt to set the download record was scheduled to begin at 1300 PST(2000 GMT) on 17 June.

However, the record attempt was almost wrecked from the start as the servers handling the downloads collapsed under the weight of visitors checking to see if new version was available.Once the servers were up and functioning normally again the record attempt began.

At their busiest the servers were handling more than 9,000 downloads per minute. Within five hours the number of downloads for Version 3.0 exceeded the 1.6 million set by Firefox 2.0 in October 2006.

In total Firefox 3.0 was downloaded 8.3 million times over the 24 hour record setting period. The figure beats the five million Mozilla predicted before the day.

Logs from the download servers have been handed to the at Open Source LabsOregon State University for auditing. The scrutiny will ensure duplicate and unfinished downloads are not counted. The verification process could take a week to complete.

The surge of interest in Firefox 3.0 has continued and Mozilla has reported that the software has now been downloaded more than 10 million times.

DV Labs/Tipping Point reported a flaw only five hours after debuted. The flaw potentially lets an attacker take over a Firefox 3.0PC if a user clicks on a booby-trapped link.

Bugs in Firefox 3.0 already?!!! Oh No...

Security researchers at Tipping Point have found a vulnerability in the new Firefox 3.0 web browser already, ranking the severity of the bug as 'high'.

Tipping Point has verified the bug and reported it to Mozilla, and Mozilla is still working on a fix and till the fix is released, the researchers won't share details about the problem.

Despite ranked the severity of the vulnerability as high, Tipping Point said users would have to click on a link in an e-mail or visit a malicious web page before being affected. The issue affects users of Firefox 3.0 as well as Firefox 2.0.

Tipping Point found out about the vulnerability through its Zero Day Initiative, which lets researchers earn cash by submitting new vulnerabilities to the company. Once Tipping Point validates the issue, it pays the researcher for the information and notifies the relevant software vendor of the technical details.

Mozilla did not respond to a request for comment.