June 18, 2008
From the ‘it looked good on paper’ file
Mozilla, the scrappy open-source software company, hoped to set a one-day software download record on Tuesday with the launch of Firefox 3, the latest copy of its popular web browser. The company even went so far as to set up a special web page to promote its Guinness Book of World Records bid.
But Mozilla’s hoped-for PR coup turned into something of a debacle as thousands of eager downloaders rushed the site. The result was an internet equivalent of the Cleveland Indians’ infamous “10 cent beer night ” in 1974, in which an inebriated mob of baseball fans - lured by the promise of all-you-can-drink 10 cent beers - laid waste to portions of Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
In Mozilla’s case, the flood of download requests for Firefox 3 rendered the Mozilla.com site inaccessible to other users for part of the day. The cock-up drew jeers from web commentators. As VentureBeat wrote:
It is both annoying and laughable when a company massively hypes its own launch, only to result in broken links and 404 pages.
Mozilla had to know its servers would get slammed around 10 AM PST (the start time), hell, it begged for it to happen. In the blogosphere, we have a word for this: FAIL.
Hey, at least no one got hurt. The latest word from Mozilla is that the company is on track to break the download record in spite of the earlier problems.
Clearly Mozilla missed an oppurtunity. I have used the browser and email client and have been impressed by both.
I am diappointed that Mr. Allison had to dig back to 1974 for an analogy - perhaps a Yankees fan?
Posted by: Terry | June 18th, 2008 at 2:00 am | Report this commentBy 2:45 pm CDT (UTC/GMT -5) I was able to download Firefox in just a few seconds. I read the reports about the server crash on FF3!
Those who were quick to ‘jeer’ may have been waiting with baited breath for this type of ‘debacle’. To be honest, with the numbers of downloads they’re trying for, I probably would have been surprised if the servers *hadn’t* been overwhelmed.
Missed opportunity? (commentor 1) Don’t be too sure about that
Posted by: Mack - Nashville, TN | June 18th, 2008 at 5:43 am | Report this commentAgree with Mack - if you look at the Mozilla website, they already passed the 5 million downloads they were hoping for.
A hiccup yes, but a failure no.
Posted by: Tim Cheung | June 18th, 2008 at 10:58 am | Report this commentWhen Nintendo runs out of Wiis the commentators question whether they are engineering the demand by intentionally creating shortages to make the product more of a must have.
If users are enlightened and enthused enough to want to go to the Mozilla site and attempt to download the new software, it seems unlikely that on finding the site’s down they’ll toddle off to search for the latest version of IE or make a wholesale switch to Opera. They’ll just want it all the more and they’ll come back later.
If sites being down and the odd bout of frustration were enough to put people off then the internet would never have prospered as it has.
Ultimately what’s going to get written about more? A record number of downloads or an apparent failure? Whether we like it or not, bad news travels faster and gets more interest. It’s the difference between a headline of “another fine day” and “storm narrowly averted”. Every publisher knows which sells more papers.
Whether this was poor planning (likely) or intentional (unlikely) it’s going to get Firefox far more attention than if it had worked.
Posted by: Andy Warren | June 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm | Report this commentI downloaded the Windows version for the office computer mid-morning, and the Mac version for my home system in the evening and experienced no problems whatsoever.
Posted by: John Leventis | June 18th, 2008 at 1:58 pm | Report this commentBit harsh? Donwnload outages and web breaks are common place today. I tried to download first thing and couldn’t so I just waited…no rush. I think this just demonstrates the huge success and high demand from consumers who want a better and more personalised browsing experience.
Posted by: Poseiden | June 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am | Report this comment