On November 8th, Mozilla released Firefox 8, the 5th rendition of the browser released since the beginning of this year. This is yet another testament to Mozilla’s recently adopted rapid release process, particularly made evident by the fact that first seven versions of the browser took seven years to release! Firefox 8 is a well-polished version which builds off of the functionality offered by its predecessors, and brings a whole slew of new features to the table. Most notably, users now have the option to search twitter from the toolbar, the same way they can interact with Google, Bing and Yahoo. Following up with our prior reports on Firefox’s release process, Chitika Insights investigated the adoption rate of Firefox 8 to discern whether or not the adoption rate is consistent with patterns previously observed.

To analyze this surge in growth, Chitika Insights studied a series of traffic dating from November 1st to the 9th, noting hourly growth of Firefox 8 as a function of both overall traffic and Firefox traffic exclusively. We followed the same methodology as in our Firefox 7 and Firefox 6 studies, and the growth pattern found was similar.

The most rapid rate of adoption occurs within the first 48 hours of release, as a majority of Firefox users update their browsers using Mozilla’s auto-update feature – Firefox 8 was responsible for mere 7% of all Firefox traffic within the first 24 hours. However, after less than one week, Firefox 8 claims over 35% of all Firefox traffic; an impressive metric which is likely attributable to Mozilla’s auto-update feature. On another note, an interesting fact is that Firefox 8 exhibited signs of life prior to the release date, a life sign of Mozilla’s active development community.

As a publisher and advertiser, it’s always important to ensure that your products and content function as designed on a wide variety of technology platforms. If your users cannot see and interact with the value you are offering, it will be difficult to monetize your site and drive user engagement. Stay tuned to Chitika Insights as we continue to cover Firefox and other cutting edge technology trends.

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