Firefox passes two billion add-on downloads

Firefox users have downloaded more than two billion add-ons for the web browser, the Mozilla Foundation has revealed.

The landmark was reached yesterday, some 18 months after the one billion download mark was achieved. To mark the occasion, the [a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox" target="_blank"]Firefox team has compiled a collection of 25 favourites based on user recommendations.

"When we reached one billion Firefox Add-on downloads in November 2008, we thought it would take us less than three years to get to the next billion, and with your help, we've gotten to two billion in half that time," Firefox Add-ons team member Julie Choi wrote on the company's blog.

"With more than 150 million add-ons in use every day, we know that the next billion add-on downloads will be here before we know it."

Choi highlighted spin-off services such as the Extend Firefox 3 contest for developers, Fashion Your Firefox (for first-time users) and the Add-ons for Mobile site dedicated purely to mobile browsing as central to the browser's continued popularity.

"Over the years, we [have] remained dedicated to building features and products that make Firefox the world's most customisable web browser for consumers and developers," Choi wrote.

The Best of Two Billion Firefox Add-ons collection covers a wide range of topics, from diagnostics tools to price comparison assistants.

Firefox has entrenched itself as the second most popular web browser globally, behind Microsoft's still-dominant Internet Explorer (IE).

But while it enjoyed significant growth initially and is now the default choice of one in four internet users worldwide, the Mozilla browser's market share has softened slightly in recent months as the increasingly popular Bing drives an Explorer revival for Microsoft, and Google's Chrome starts to gain momentum.