It seems like just yesterday that Mozilla was announcing 200,000,000 downloads of Firefox, but today the counters hit 400,000,000. With the rate of downloads doubling each year, if current progress is to be believed, this time next year the good ol’ browser we all love to love should be sitting proud, a-top a Microsoft-dominated industry.

What makes Firefox a winner? Is it the ad-free demeanour? Is it the fact that loading times are a gazillion times better than Safari, IE and Opera? Perhaps it’s the not-so-short-sighted rendering capabilities. No. I think not… For the community is what makes Firefox my browser of choice! With IE7, Microsoft tried to save their market share by letting users create plug-ins (no, not self-installing toolbars). In short - unless your name is Bob and you want a countdown timer popping up in your face every five seconds - you’re dommed.

My stat tracking agreed with me. 80% Firefox audience. Whilst this might not be an accurate market share reflection (heck - I can only wish), it does certainly show that the every-day-surfer is smartening up. If you’re not using the Mozilla beast, you’re stubborn, lazy, or in denial. Subborn because you refuse to believe there is anything better than a browser full of 1001 toolbars and unblockable pop-ups. Lazy because you couldn’t be bothered clicking to download then double-clicking to install, or completely in denial, convinced that I’m the raving lunatic. Go figure. Here’s a shout-out all the same to some of the plugins and their developers who’ve helped make Firefox my browser.

Tab Mix Plus (Kudos to the dev team!)

Search Status (Webmaster blessing from above!)

IE Tab (For the nasty rendering Web 0.1 buggers.)

PDF Download (Send the beer their way!)

…and a whole lot more. Rock on! I’ll see you in Geekdom. But heck - I’ve shared by two cents. What’re your favourite plugins?