As of February 2014, Firefox has between 18% and 23% of worldwide usage, making it the third most popular web browser, according to different sources.[19][20][21][22] According to Mozilla, Firefox counts over 450 million users around the world.[23] The browser has had particular success in Indonesia, Germany, Poland, and Iran, where it is the most popular browser with 55%,[24] 43%,[25] 41%,[26] and 46%[27] of the market share, respectively.
The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser.[28] To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite's software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.[29]
The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark problems with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird database software project.[30][31] In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion. After further pressure, on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox,[32] often referred to as Firefox. Mozilla prefers the Firefox abbreviation Fx or fx, though it is often abbreviated as FF.[33] The Firefox project went through many