The ever growing open source browser, Firefox, surged past the 400 million downloads mark last week, according to a statement posted on ; a Web site dedicated to marketing the Mozilla Foundation's flagship creation.

The statement, posted on Friday, details the rise and rise of Firefox from its emergence in late 2004, to the 25 million download mark achieved in its opening 99 days, through to the current rate of almost 402 million downloads.

The Spread Firefox Team thanked supporters of the browser, claiming the inspiration for Firefox's success stemmed from "a world of people desperate for a better Web - a Web that didn't overwhelm them with pop-ups, a Web that didn't infect their systems with viruses and spyware, a Web that was fun again, simply put, a Web that worked."

As of September 10, W3Counter statistics on worldwide browser usage suggest that all versions of the Firefox browser (1.0, 1.5 and 2.0) are together used by around a quarter of the global market.

The two latest versions of Internet Explorer still remain the preferred choice of browsers, however, estimated to be used by approximately two-thirds of the global market.