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There’s no question that Mozilla’s (News - Alert) Firefox 4 has got users very interested.

Some 1 million copies of the new browser were downloaded by users in its first three hours of availability, according to a report from Computer World.

Firefox 4 could surpass the record of Microsoft's (News - Alert) IE9. Microsoft said that users downloaded 2.4 million copies of Internet Explorer 9 during the first 24 hours of its availability earlier this month, as reported by Computer World.

As of Thursday afternoon, (ET) there were 18,121,702 downloads of Firefox 4, according to the Mozilla website.

Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner said the download record of Firefox 4 fell behind the number of downloads for Firefox 3.6 – which Mozilla shipped during January 2010, according to Computer World. Beltzner said that during its first three hours, users downloaded an average of 5,000 to 6,000 copies per minute, which works out to less than half of the 12,000-per-minute copies of the earlier version.

Mozilla said that when the new browser saw a million downloads by users, its developers and employees “rang cowbells, cheered, and watched as someone dressed in a Firefox mascot costume danced around the room.”

Firefox 4 was supposed to ship during last November, but bugs delayed its release, and in October, Mozilla announced that it would finish browser development in 2011.

Among the features found on Firefox 4 include:

--A new tab manager, called "Panorama"
--An overhauled interface which resembles the minimal design of Chrome
--GPU acceleration to increase page composition speed

In addition, TMCnet reported that Firefox 4 features such new features a JavaScript engine and bookmark syncing. The browser also has an updated plug-in architecture called JetPack and comprehensive support for HTML5.

Similar to Internet Explorer 9, which was released earlier this month, Firefox 4 comes loaded with a "do not track" feature that is designed to ensure Web surfing privacy.

To download the Firefox 4 in 70 different languages, please click here.

It is a rival to Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. TMCnet reported that Version 9 had a major makeover. IE9 was available in beta version since 2010. Among its new features are:

--The ability to “pin” favorite pages to the Windows 7 task bar.
--This version is more streamlined and quicker than previous versions.