Mozilla Shoots for the "Geekiest Record Ever" with Firefox 3

Time to start the PR engines, as Firefox 3's release is rapidly approaching. And what better way to ensure a lot of downloads than to try to set a record. On Wednesday Mozilla announced a campaign asking users to "pledge" to download Firefox 3 on the day of its release. The goal: set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.

Mozilla is calling the day "Download Day" (how original!) and encourages users to hold Firefox 3 parties, place buttons on their site, as well as pledge to download.

And yes, I pledged, and yes, as you can see I added the appropriate "Download Day" button to this site.

Of course, one thing should be noted: there isn't a current world record for most software downloads on the day of a release. According to their FAQ, however, Mozilla will provide the following to the Guinness Book of World Records to try to get the record validated:

• Signed statements of authentication from our judges showing that we've followed the rules and confirming our numbers.
• Video footage and photographs of our community members hosting Download Fests. Take pictures!!
• Download logs for a sample size of our downloads. We will internally host 10% of the downloads, retaining all of the logs for these downloads, and will use this as our sample set to extrapolate the actual download number and percentage of completed downloads.

It should take a week or so for the validation process to complete. Mozilla does ask that we all play nicely and download only one copy each. However, asking your friends to download as well is perfectly OK!