Word to mouth. People that used it during the holliday season at home are spreding the word at the coffe breaks

Here in Austria (Europe), Firefox gets some good coverage in the mainstream press on a constant basis. Here are some recent articles:

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1877173

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1901195 About FF success in Europe

http://www.wcm.at/story.php?id=7482

http://kurier.at/multimedia/799556.php

http://wcm.krone.at/krone/C00/S12/A3/object_id__25444/hxcms/

Looks like you may have been mentioned on national radio in the UK at some point recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/wright/web_archive.shtml

On closer inspection, though, that was probably mid-November:

http://www.websiteoftheday.info/2004/11/firefox_new_and.html

Also, while on the subject of the BBC, did you know that testing against Firefox is now part of their web development guidelines?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/webdev_release_v_016.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/webdev/AppE.Browser_Support_Standards.htm

Actually, a Belgian newspaper (De Gentenaar/Het Nieuwsblad) had some coverage about Blake Ross with the title "Computer whizzkid floors Microsoft". My dad was entusiastic and wanted to install Firefox until I told him he'd been using it for quite some time now. :D

I think its probably people going back to work. My site had a relatively quiet christmas and new year period, then a massive traffic spike on the 4th and 5th as people got back to the office :)

Maybe it's from germany. I had an interview with one of the biggest print magazines here in germany. Here is, what Focus did with it in their current issue: http://focus.msn.de/hps/fol/newsausgabe/newsausgabe.htm?id=10091&camp=nlh20050103

Firefox and Blake Ross took a full page in Tuesday's (London) Times. There was also associated editorial comment.

The story is at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1425171,00.html and the Editorial Comment piece at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-1425008,00.html

I think it is popping up in more places. And I do think Germany appears to be a fast-growing area. Both PC-WELT and CHIP (computer magazines) in Germany are going to be including Portable Firefox on the CDs that accompany upcoming issues.

It's probably because I wore my Firefox shirt to the mall last weekend.

Firefox was also the subject of a story on National Public Radio (NPR) this morning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4270627

Isn't it time to update the text of the "March to 10 million downloads" banner that sits on top of the download count at spreadfirefox ?

China media have an extensive coverage of firefox these days. And it is one of the hottest topic on different Chinese forums and BBSs.

Here is governmental site in Austria that tells you how to activate Javascript in your browser. The page contains instructions for Firefox and Opera as well:

http://www.tirol.gv.at/no_javascript.shtml

How to views RSS for the Austria paper "Kurier", using Firefox.

http://kurier.at/multimedia/799554.php

Very positive article on t-online austria:

http://www.t-online.at/toat2/generator/at/Multimedia/Computer/Tests/Tests,CmC=290922,CmPart=www.t-online.at.html

Another positive article on news.at, a weekly magazine with huge circulation:

http://www.networld.at/index.html?/articles/0451/542/100439.shtml

This looks good, doesn't it?

Firefox is mentioned as least one per week in the biggest computer magazines in Sweden. Here are some examples:

http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200501/05/20050105234723_SOS/20050105234723_SOS.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200501/03/20050103131318_IW/20050103131318_IW.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/30/20041230094720_CS/20041230094720_CS.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/28/20041228104316_MD/20041228104316_MD.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/17/20041217135951_CS/20041217135951_CS.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/14/20041214110932_NOK/20041214110932_NOK.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/13/20041213090328_NOK/20041213090328_NOK.dbp.asp
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/13/20041213083928_NOK/20041213083928_NOK.dbp.asp

Basically, the press is forcing readers to take notice, which of course is a good thing. :)

Eh, my unscientific theroy is that all the college kids came home from school and fixed their parents and relitives computers.

Of course, media coverage helps too.

"Firefox and Blake Ross took a full page in Tuesday's (London) Times."

Dammit! I was in London from Monday to Wednesday and I bought a Times for both flights.

Bollocks.

There has been a raving review in the February issue of PC Pro magazine from the UK, which earned Firefox the "PC Pro Recommended" label.

Quote: "So, Firefox is everything that IE is not: it's got a small overall footprint, it's gentle on system resources, it's quick to render and it's fully W3C standards-compliant. But, because it isn't IE, it also means there are still some sites that just won't render correctly, or even let you through the front door in the case of some banking services. This is no fault of Firefox, rather the short-sightedness of developers building non-standard sites, which end up being IE specific."

Verdict: "Tabbed browsing, speedy rendering and the ability to add in only the features you need make Firefox our browser of choice."

Ratings: Ease of use: 5/6, features: 6/6, value for money: 6/6. Overall: 6/6.

See: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/67024/mozilla-firefox-1.html

By the way, I think you should include the "PC Pro Recommended" award label in the awards section of http://www.getfirefox.com. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the only award you've forgotten. :)

Firefox was recommended by a satire website (it was recommended seriously, though) called Cocadaboa (www.cocadaboa.com) which stole (no actual harm done and the communities are back to their owners by now) major Brazilian communities on Orkut in order to warn people of a recent Internet Explorer bug, which, due to Orkut's design, allowed information leaking (and changing) from user profiles and communities.

I don't know if this accounts for much of those downloads, but some communities had a big number of users (150,000+).

Direct URIs:

* Original warning page:
http://www.cocadaboa.com/archives/004126.php

* Explanation of what happened (remember, they are a satire site... they weren't taken seriously by Brazilian press, as this site has fooled the press quite a few times):
http://www.cocadaboa.com/archives/004132.php

* Another explanation by the satirist (this time on a third-party news site):
http://webinsider.uol.com.br/vernoticia.php/id/2312.