In less than 24 hours, the latest release of Firefox has been downloaded more than 8 million (8000,000) times.

So far the reviews have all been positive, and while many themes and extensions are not yet available for 3, many have already been ported over and more are available every day. Additionally the default theme for Firefox 3 is much more eye catching than the corporate looking (read: boring) theme of Firefox 2.

Testing here at HTMLfixit.com over the release candidates and the final release show it to be an order of magnitude faster than Firefox 2 to load and to render, even on sub standard computers. It also doesn’t significantly increase it’s memory use over time as Firefox 2 did. The list of new and improved features is as long as your arm and has been detailed on dozens of sites so I won’t go into it here.

Interestingly Firefox 3 already accounts for nearly 10 percent of HTMLfixIT’s traffic, which goes to show that a good many of our techie visitors already know about it.

For at least four or five years I have favored Google for almost every search I perform. I found it to be superior when I started using it way back when. In all honesty I have not tried another search engine lately so it was reassuring to see this PC World Article that basically confirmed my perception. It does suggest that for a couple of niche searches there may be other equally good options. Thanks Google for keeping us in the know.

Today I had to create a 404 page, and I wanted something a bit better than the drab, 1990s-version of the typical 404 page. Enter A List Apart.

This great article at ALA gives tips on creating 404 pages that help improve your site’s usability and create a friendlier user experience for your visitors. Among the tips:

• Don’t admonish the user
• Keep it minimal
• Incorporate javascript to tailor the 404 error based on how the 404 page was reached.

Check it out for specific javascript example and a more in-depth look at the hows and whys of creating a usable and friendly 404.

It is a sign of a highly recognized logo when you can replace parts of it and still have everyone know what it is, don’t you think?

They are at it again.

Google finished the purchase of YouTube, according to a press release issued by Google. It will be interesting to see how this develops and what additional benefits it brings to people interested in video content on the internet.

This article that Google may apparently sell adwords to a competitor of a particular company. That doesn’t bother me. As a consumer, if I type in some company name I would be delighted to be offered alternatives from competitors so that I can make an informed choice. What is interesting is that the article alleges the plaintiff in that suit believes that Google fails to disclose sold search results! Now I have always believed just the opposite is true. I see sponsored links and they are clearly disclosed as near as I can figure. I would like to know if there is any substance to this allegation.

Wow have they done a lot in eight short years or what? I still love Google (the search engine) and enjoy a number of their other products. They truly have diversified and have worked hard to provide value to the world it sure seems to me. I recently started using Google Earth (free version), I use gmail (not too often but I do store some stuff there) and I use their searches daily. I have not made much use of it’s library project, but that is pretty cool. Anyway, happy birthday!