Download Day: Denied?

Mozilla’s attempt at a world download record may have backfired.

The release of Firefox 3 — scheduled to occur at precisely 1 p.m. Eastern today — has been delayed for an unspecified amount of time due to technical problems on the Mozilla site. In the Mozilla Blog, engineers say the “outpouring of interest and enthusiasm around Firefox 3 has been overwhelming (literally!)” and has caused servers to “feel the burn.”

Mozilla says the official record attempt for the most downloads of a single program in a 24-hour period will start once the site goes live. Currently, trying to access the site will get you nowhere — about an hour and a half after the original release time.

Engineers haven’t gone as far as calling the day off. As of now, they’re still saying the servers will be back to normal soon and the launch will go as planned — well, almost.