It sounded funny at first, but it turned into a worldwide phenomenon: Mozilla’s browser quickly became the most downloaded software in 24 hours, and millions of users more continued to download Firefox 3.0 within the first days after the official release.

There are a lot of things to say about Firefox 3.0, but if we had to characterize it in three words, those words would have to be: fast, secure, innovative.

The latest version of the browser should get Microsoft wondering: where did we go wrong? Internet Explorer seems to be loosing ground, not at a fast pace, but at a certain one.

Mozilla promised a browsing experience like never before, and it delivered exactly that, by working on improved performance, better stability, less CPU usage, more sustainability, and by giving it a personal touch.

Based on the Gecko platform, which has been under development for the past 34 months, Firefox delivers protection for anything from malware to forgery and data leaks.

The password manager finally delivers what I (and others) have been waiting for: a manager that offers to remember passwords after a successful login, not every time I type my password wrong!

The download manager is actually useful now, and the resume button makes other download managers useless. And another thing: if you miss you last browsing session, Firefox can save it for you.

But what got everyone saying “wow!” was the “Awesome Bar,” which replaced the old and dull location bar with a Smart Location Bar, which basically works like a search engine, offering multiple matching results based on bookmarks and browsing history.

The Install Add-ons Manager makes Firefox easy to customize, while the Library makes every search through bookmarks and history a stress-free one.

In terms of speed, there’s no doubt about it, Firefox is a winner, by making some applications run twice as fast as before.

In addition to that, your computer won’t cry for over usage of memory anymore, as Mozilla developed a system that reduces the amount of memory used during a browsing session.

It’s reliable, fast, safe and easy to use. Mozilla managed to developed a browser for all tastes, and the Guinness World Record will probably not be forgotten that easily.