The Mozilla Foundation's popular open-source browser, Firefox, turned one year old yesterday. An executive at Mozilla stated, that demand for the Firefox browser had completely out-stripped the company s expectations.

Chris Beard, head - marketing and product management, Mozilla Corp, said, that at the launch of Firefox last November, there were a million downloads on the very first day, and ever since there has been no looking back.

According to the Mozilla Foundation, users have downloaded 106.4 million copies of the open-source Web browser since its debut in November 2004. Further the October results of NetApplications say, that Firefox has grabbed 8.65 per cent of market share, thereby making a dent in rival Internet Explorer's dominance,

Earlier this month the test version of Firefox 1.5 was released to approximately 500,000 users, show-casing features such as faster performance and automatic updates.

Beard stated that several changes are in store, with Firefox entering its second year. The SpreadFirefox site will be re-launched, with a new set of campaigns to promote Firefox. In addition, Mozilla will enter into partnerships with Web service providers and ISPs to reach out to people who aren t very familiar with the Web.

Significantly, Firefox 2 will be launched in mid-2006 and Firefox 3 will be released in Q1 of 2007. Plans are also in the offing, to start scheduled security and stability updates every 6 to 8 weeks.