What do the world's loudest belcher and the Mozilla Foundation have in common? Until recently I would have said nothing. But when the evaluators of the Guinness World Records are done examining 8 million downloads for Firefox 3.0 on Tuesday loud belching, car balancing on heads, and 31 inch fingernails will all share the honor of making it into the Guinness World Records Book.
My question is: Did Mozilla really need this kind of validation to prove its browser's popularity? Don't get me wrong. I'm not Firefox or Guinness World Records Book hater. If anything I'm a fan of both. I prefer Firefox 3 and all its improvements over IE and have been happily dumbfounded by Guinness World Records Books between the ages of 7 and 14. I fondly remember gawking at pictures of the world's heaviest, tallest, and smallest men and women. But as an adult my Guinness loyalty is for the excellent beer - not the book.
My admiration for Mozilla and all it has accomplished is of a different caliber. Downloading the latest version of Firefox and appreciating the Guinness World Records Books seem to be as incongruous as warm bread and modern architecture. I also feel the Guinness Gamer's Edition is a bit of a stretch for the brand.
Mozilla doesn't need stunts to keep the momentum strong for its popular and excellent browser. Going for a place in the Guinness World Records Books cheapens the Firefox brand. That's not because the Guinness World Records Books is not a great book - it is. I just think Firefox should spend more time innovating, fixing the browsers flaws, and keeping its download servers up and running instead of going for a citation in the Guinness World Records Books next to Bernie Barker the "world's oldest" male stripper who was 66 before hanging up his g-string.
I think Mozilla is smarter than you give them credit for. I would chock this one up as an extremely successful experiment in marketing.
What's wrong with silly, or guiness world records for that matter? Ludwig probably said it best - "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." Mozilla's simply trying to get a buzz going for their new and better product - I think the community of users and developers validates them plenty. If you need to find a reason for it then simply compare it to riding a Motorcycle as opposed to a car or a sailboat as opposed to a motorboat. You find a similar social 'kinship' among all unique groups. Mozilla's no different.
Agree, case in point, the Great Guinness Toast (the adult Guinness loyalty mentioned) did the same type of thing for its place in the aforementioned book. I'll raise a pint again next year.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree on this.
The people that "spent time" on the GWRB promotion are neither the people managing the server uptime nor the engineers fixing flaws/bugs/quirks.
In fact, this "silly quest for fame" is purely marketing, and the tone of the promotion matches well with the previously established 'personality' of the FireFox brand. It's not validation, it's pure marketing. It's making your current audience aware of and excited for new technology, and publicizing it to potential new audience.
Quit hatin on my boys from Mozilla. I admire this company for doing more than making a sweet browser; they have resisted falling into the dull, dreary, corporate scum profile that so many other traditional technology companies have done. Who cares if Mozilla wants to have some fun and do something besides just make money?
"I just think Firefox should spend more time innovating, fixing the browsers flaws, and keeping its download servers up and running instead of "
Way to state the obvious. May as well demand 100% server up time and expect nothing less than a browser with 0 flaws and needs no patching or improvements.
I'm glad they got some publicity in a more productive fashion than most advertising. Sure it wasn't 100% perfect, but when you go in uncharted territory, do you expect to have a trail map?
Enough hindsight bashing.
Cheers,
A Guinness Drinker
I think it was a great idea to push for the world records. majority of the people in the world, consider it to be a big thing, and hence using that as a point to drive up the penetration is an excellent marketting effort. I feel Mozilla's marketting team has done an excellent job of promoting Firefox, with a constraint media budget compared to other deep pocketed organizations.
Have to agree with other comments; The objective of the exercise was not to actually make the Guinness Book of Records, and I don't think you can somehow link both brands based on this little stunt - even if it was poorly executed. Nor would the PR/marketing people in Mozilla have otherwise spent their time fixing bugs. Let's not carried away here. Adobe admitted they download 8 million copies of their Flash player on an average day! The point is, it got people talking, even a few myopic, stout drinking IT columnists.
"Did Mozilla really need this kind of validation to prove its browser's popularity?"
--Good question, & you imply the correct answer I think: no, it does not. But do you (or any readers) really believe that it hurts? What's more, it's not at all clear to me how the browser is or could be getting validation--as far as I can tell, the Guinness franchise is unqualified for any sort of browser validation (figurative or literal)
"Mozilla doesn't need stunts to keep the momentum strong for its popular and excellent browser."
--Absolutely correct. Firefox's quality speaks for itself, so perhaps, this bit of fun is superfluous. But, again, how can tapping a new demographic hurt?
"Going for a place in the Guinness World Records Books cheapens the Firefox brand."
--How so? Isn't the Firefox brand marketed as a free product? (Hehe, I kid.) But really, which of the popular marketing/advertising techniques (nearly all of which are sleazy & offensive to educated consumers) would u prefer?
They didn't do it because they were needing some kind of "validation to prove its browser's popularity". They did it because they wanted to, because they can, because it's fun, and because they wanted a great and cool method to measure it's popularity. You say guiness is for kids between 7 and 14? Man, you're wrong. It'll be really interesing in the future to see whick software can break the 8 million downloads in 24 hours record.
this was a great idea! yes it does prove that firefox is very popular but it also came out as a great marketing for them
i agree with how doesn't need stunts for its popular and excellent browser.
but if they have the extra time & resources, why the heck not?
Oh Tom, stop being such a grinch! Step outside your cubicle and enjoy the sunshine! :)
Superb marketing. Get people to be part of an effort. Groupthink. Rev them up. Get lots of publicity. All practically for free: heck, they even had to pay for the ink and paper for the certificate.
Anyone who thinks this was silly needs to go back to Business 101 and study harder.
Must have been a slow news day Tom?
One might wonder why someone would waste his time writing about something he clearly thinks is a waste of time?
Get a life buddy!