Remember, that whole Firefox download day thing that we got so amped up about? Us too.

Remember when their servers screwed the pooch for most of "Download Day"? Us too.

How about that vulnerability that affected all 8 zillion of us who downloaded version 3? Yep, we remember that too.

Now you can put all those rough memories behind and sleep easy. Today, Mozilla "officially" announced setting the record, with 8,002,530 downloads on the release day of Firefox 3. It's fair to point out that, nothing was broken here... this was a new record, hence "setting" and not "breaking".

Will you remember Mozilla set the Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours on June 18th, 2008? Neither will we.

But congrats on still being #2 Firefox. Let us know when that changes and we'll jump around and party like it's 2035!

Firefox is already pretty amazing, but we're always looking for another add-on to make it even more kick-ass. Enter CyberSearch, an update of AwesomeSearch which adds tons of search functionality to your browser. It even displays results right in the Awesome Bar's drop-down.

Search results without Adsense ads? Oh, it's possible.

CyberSearch also lets you set up keyword or letter patterns that tell it to restrict sites to specific URLs - preface your search with 'techy' and you'll only get results from Lifehacker, CyberNetNews(go figure), and Download Squad (we had nothing to do with that, we swear!).

Since it's built on Google's API, you're still getting the same results you'd get if you went to Google first anyways. Hello, efficiency!

You can download the extension from Mozilla's repository.

On June 17, 2008 Mozilla attempted to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in a 24 hour period. According to Mozilla over 8 million downloads were recorded. Currently they are awaiting word from Guinness if they were successful.

But there was one thing we wanted to know about this number. Out of the 3 major operating systems in use today which one blazed away with the most downloads. So we decided to ask and a Mozilla spokesperson gave us the following numbers:

• Windows 79%
• Linux 13%
• OS X 8%

Now the number 1 spot didn't surprise us at all since Windows leads in overall computer operating systems it's almost a given that most of the downloads would come from Windows. But what was a bit surprising was that Linux bested OS X in the numbers of downloads.

One could say that Ubuntu, which is a very popular Linux distro comes packaged with Firefox so it's only natural that more downloads would come from Linux users. But according to w3counter, OS X accounts for 4.95% of the operating systems in use while Linux is barely half of this at 2.01%

So this strikes us as odd. What would cause OS X to slip to 3rd place in the number of downloads? Do these numbers suggested that Apple users only like to use Apple apps? Or did a large group of Mac users not get invited to the download party?

We've covered the beta version of Firefox 3 portable before. But since the world wide release of Firefox 3, the team over at PortableApps has upgraded the beta version to the release version of this very popular web browser

Unlike the standard Windows version of Firefox 3 that requires a standard Windows installation, the portable version can be executed in any directory, even right off a USB thumb drive. This makes it great for taking your own browser, complete with cookies and favorites, with you for use on any Windows computer. When you're done, remove the thumb drive from the host computer leaving virtually no trace of your online activities.

The portable version is a 8MB download and available now at PortableApps.com.

If you were one of those 8 million people that downloaded Firefox 3 the other day be aware that Tipping Point DVLabs has announced a vulnerability in Mozilla's latest browser.

Details are unknown but in order for this exploit to work, you'll have to visit a site with the malicious code and click the infected link. Zero Day rates the severity as "High" and it effects both version 2 and 3 of the popular internet browser. Mozilla has acknowledged the security issue and should have a patch issued in its 3.0.1 release shortly.

With the amount of beta testing that's been done on Firefox 3 it makes you wonder why something like this slipped by?

In the mean time, be careful of where you click and make sure Firefox is set to auto update.

It's been a while since we've seen a compelling new browser start page. There was a real flurry of start pages a year or two ago when the likes of Google Personalized Start Page (now iGoogle), NetVibes, Pageflakes, and a myriad of other copycat sites launched. Strangely, even with such an amazing variety of start pages to choose from, we've never found any of them to be particularly compelling.

Then we were introduced to Feedly. Feedly is a start page that only works in Firefox, because it requires a Firefox browser extension to run. It's actually a locally hosted page that goes out and grabs information feed reader sites and social networks that you use, and presents it to you in a friendly magazine style layout.

Feedly can go through your Firefox bookmarks, as well as your My Yahoo! page, NetVibes, Bloglines, Twitter, FriendFeed, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail accounts to find relevant information to present to you. If we can offer one tip, it would be to choose carefully. When setting up our page, we checked every possible option, and ended up with far too many feeds, and too many feeds that we had lost interest in that were still in some account somewhere that Feedly found.

Feedly also has a very tight integration with Google Reader, and anything that you read in Feedly will be marked as read in Google Reader, and vice versa. This is cool, but it's also dangerous, since and feeds that you add to Feedly (or that it finds) are automatically added to your Google Reader account. So again, choose carefully what feeds you want to be seeing in Feedly, as they will affect your Google Reader account.

But once it's all set up, Feedly is a very useful and elegantly done start page - so much so, that we haven't been compelled to remove it. And since no other start page has captured our interest, that's certainly something.

Now that Firefox 3 has finally shipped, the developers at Mozilla are starting to make time for other projects. Don't get us wrong, those busy little bees are already working on Firefox 3.1, but they're also working on something entirely new: a mobile web browser.

The mobile version of Firefox, (currently codenamed Fennec -- a final name hasn't been picked yet), will use the same rendering engine as Firefox 3. In other words, any web page you can view with the desktop browser will be usable on a mobile device. That includes AJAX-heavy web applications. But nobody's pretending that you can just run Firefox 3 on a cellphone without making any changes. After all, mobile devices have small screens, slow processors, low amounts of memory, and often rely on relatively slow internet connections.

Last week we showed you a first look at a concept interface that might make its way into the final product. But it might not. So we decided to speak with Jay Sullivan, VP of Mobile for Mozilla. He gave us a run down of what's in store for Fennec, including what types of devices will be supported and when you'll be able to try the browser out for yourself.

This morning it looked like Mozilla was on track to set a world record by serving up 5 to 7 million downloads of Firefox 3 within 24 hours of the web browser's release. But by day's end, (well, 24 hour's end anyway), you all smashed that number and downloaded Firefox 3 over 8 million times.

Mozilla is still waiting to get confirmation from the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records before proclaiming the official number, but Mozilla Links pegs the number at 8,290,908, give or take a few. And NetApplications says that Firefox 3 went from less than 1% of the browser market this morning to almost 3% in a matter of 13 hours.

No matter what, Mozilla will have set a world record though -- since they're competing in a brand new category.

Mozilla's attempt to break a world record by getting as many people to download Firefox 3 in a 24 hour period as possible got off to a bumpy start. But almost a day later, the Mozilla servers are humming along and sending out copies of the company's latest browser to every corner of the globe. Wait, a globe is round. Nevermind.

Anyway, as of this morning, Firefox 3 had been downloaded over 6 million times, with more than 2 million downloads coming from the US. Mozilla has set up a nifty little page where you can track downloads by region. And all we can say is Turkmenistan had better step up its game. Seriously, 7 downloads? There have been more downloads from Greenland. We didn't even realize that people lived in Greenland.

Of course population size, poverty levels, and access to computers all come into play, which is why much of Africa is shaded in blue on the map (meaning most countries have had less than 1000 downloads) while more developed nations like the US, Canada, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, China, Russia, and India are colored in orange or red to show that 50,000 or more downloads have come from those locations.

The world record attempt concludes this afternoon at 11:16am Pacific, 2:16pm Eastern. Anyone want to take a stab at what the final number will be? Keep in mind, Mozilla's already secured a world record, since this is a new category for the Guinness Book of World Records.

Are the oldschool browser wars starting up again? It sure seems like it.

Flock has a preview of their version 2 out, Firefox launched version 3 today, and Opera launched version 9.5 on June 12th.

Who's missing from this uber release party? Oh, that would be Microsoft's Internet Explorer...the browser with the #1 market share. After their less than stellar (and way less than standards compliant) version 7, Microsoft better come up with some EPIC for Internet Explorer 8.

Opera as you know is focused on security, speed, and mobile.

The sometimes over the top Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner stressed that Opera 9.5's most innovative and most important feature is the cross-link between your desktop and mobile devices. A feature that other browsers haven't even bothered to start playing with yet.

Will Opera's mobile first, desktop second strategy work? We shall see.

4.7 million downloads in 5 days is impressive, but can Firefox surpass that in a single day? Not if they can't keep their own site online.

Stay tuned!

So you may have heard that Mozilla is hoping to set a world record for the most software downloads in a single day today. The company has been hyping today as "Download Day" for about a week. But a more apt name might be "Down Day." That's because GetFirefox.com is down. As in dead, kaput, service unavailable.

This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but if you encourage millions of users to download your software on the same day, your servers are going to take a hammering. But it appears that even Mozilla had no idea how many people would be trying to download Firefox 3 today.

There's a good chance that you may get through if you keep hitting refresh. And there's a good chance that the company will manage to break the world record if it ever gets the servers back up. But you know what? If you don't really care about setting a world record, Firefox 3 RC 3 is pretty much identical to Firefox 3 final. So if you're already running RC2 or RC3, there's no need to kill yourself trying to update your browser today. Tomorrow, next week, or even next month will probably be soon enough.

In the meantime, if you've got your heart set on downloading a next-generation browser, you can always take Opera 9.5 for a spin. That company's servers are holding up just fine.

Update: Some users are reporting success with these download links. Windows, Mac, Linux

Update 2: It looks like the site is back up, but incredibly slow. Like dialup slow.

After a long wait, version 3 of the popular Firefox browser is officially available today -- get yours here. It's likely the most anticipated Firefox release ever, poised to break a world record for the most downloads in a single day but, does it live up to its lofty expectations?

Frankly, without the browser in widespread circulation it's hard judge it an unmitigated success. Mozilla's new baby contains a claimed 15,000 improvements. With a list that long, there are bound to be a few new features you'll love, a few you'll hate -- and -- maybe a few you'll wonder how you ever lived without.

After putting the betas through their paces and having a nice long chat with Mike Beltzner -- one of the user experience gurus from Mozilla -- here are five of our favorite things about the newest member of the Firefox family.

As you know, Firefox is releasing their version 3 today, and that's not all...Firefox wants to break the Guinness record for software downloads in a 24 hour period.

1.5 Million people have said "YES I WILL DOWNLOAD!", you can be one of them and a part of a world record.

So download away! (Starting at 10am PT and 1pm ET)

Still on the fence? You can check a pretty long list of all of the things updated in this version. It's not about flash and whizbang features, it's more about stability, speed, and security. The "3 S's" that we liked to hear about from a company like Firefox that is growing up.

Give it a shot, be a part of history! Tell us what you think about Firefox 3.

If you've been waiting patiently for Google to update Google Browser Sync to run on Firefox 3, it looks like you can stop waiting. Lifehacker reports that the company has decided to discontinue development of the product.

Google Browser Sync provides Firefox 2 users a way to synchronize their bookmarks, history, cookies, and saved passwords across multiple browsers on multiple computers. In other words, you can use the program to make sure the settings on your home browser are identical to your settings on your browser at work.

According to a Google representative, the folks who had been working on the browser plugin had moved onto other projects. But honestly, we're not surprised to see that Google Browser Sync is no longer a priority for Google. Mozilla is now working on its own synchronization service called Weave, which lets you synchronize bookmarks and browser history across multiple computers.