As we near the GA for Firefox 3.6, the majority of press briefings have been completed and we’re readying for launch day!

Here’s a quick round up of coverage around the second release candidate for Firefox 3.6!

Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 2 Coverage Report

CNET, Mozilla releases second Firefox release candidate

Crenk, Download Firefox 3.6 RC2 Web Browser

DeviceMAG, Mozilla Releases Second RC for Firefox 3.6

Downloadsquad, Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 2 now available

Geek.com, Nearly finished: Mozilla posts the second Firefox 3.6 release candidate

Ghacks Technology News, Firefox 3.6 RC2 Released

Lifehacker, Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 2 Available for Download

Maximum PC, News Mozilla Stomps on Bugs, Launches Firefox 3.6 RC2

PC Magazine, Firefox 3.6 Receives a Second Release Candidate

Softpedia, Download Firefox 3.6 RC2 (Release Candidate)

The H, Mozilla releases Firefox 3.6 RC2

The Register, Near-ready Firefox 3.6 gets second RC sausage

Tom’s Hardware Guide, Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.6RC2; Final Next Week

ZDNet, Firefox 3.6 RC2 now available

Here’s a quick round up of US press coverage of the Firefox 3.6 release candidate.  Anticipation is building for the final release – coming soon!

Ars Technica: Firefox 3.6 almost ready, release candidate available

eWeek: Mozilla Rolls Out Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate

InformationWeek: Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Available

Inquirer: Firefox 3.6 release candidate is out

ITProPortal: Mozilla Unveils Firefox 3.6 RC1 Browser

Mashable: Firefox 3.6 RC1 Now Available

Maximum PC: Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate (RC1) Now Available for Download

OS News: Near-Final Firefox 3.6 Out for Testing

PC Pro: Firefox 3.6 RC1 released – final build to follow soon?

PC Magazine: Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Publicly Available

ReadWrite Web: New Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate…One Last Time?

Register: Mozilla teases surfers with near-final version of Firefox 3.6

SoftSailor: Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 1

SoftPedia: Firefox 3.6 Final Coming Right Up

TechDigest: Test version of Firefox 3.6 available for testing

TechRadar: Release candidate arrives of Firefox 3.6

TechSpot: Mozilla releases the first Firefox 3.6 release candidate

Tom’s Hardware Guide: Firefox 3.6 is Almost Done, RC1 Download Here

Tuaw: Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate now available

Web Trends: Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 1 Now Available

Web Monkey: Firefox 3.6 Enters the Home Stretch, Release Candidate Arrives

Last week, Mozilla got some exciting news – StatCounter announced that Firefox 3.5 was the Web’s most popular browser.  A number of publications picked up the news.  Here’s a quick roundup of US-based coverage:

BetaNews: Statistics: Firefox 3.5 Surpassed IE7 in global usage share last week

Datamation: Firefox 3.5 Edges Ahead in Browser Race

Electronista: Firefox 3.5 passes IE7 as most popular browser

Examiner: Firefox trounces Microsoft Internet Explorer to become the most popular browser in the world

GeekSmack: Firefox 3.5 surpasses IE7 market share

GigaOm: Firefox 3.5 Now World’s Most Popular Browser

Lifehacker: Firefox 3.5 Inches Past IE7 As World’s Most Popular Browser

NeoWin.net: Firefox 3.5 surpasses IE7 market share

OStatic: Firefox 3.5 Overtakes IE7, At Least for Now

PC World: Firefox 3.5 Edges Ahead in Browser Race

Register: Firefox 3.5 wins top dog browser crown – sort of

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Firefox 3.5 is world’s most popular browser, StatCounter says

Soft Sailor: Mozilla Firefox 3.5 version wins the battle with Internet Explorer 7 for the title of: “World`s most popular browser”

SoftPedia: The World’s Most Popular Browser is Now Firefox 3.5

Technologizer: The Ten Most Popular Browsers on Technologizer

TechWhack: Firefox 3.5 world’s most popular browser

ThinkDigit: Firefox 3.5 edges out IE 7

TopNews: StatCounter: Mozilla Firefox 3.5 registers ‘more active’ usage than Microsoft IE7

TrustedReviews: Firefox 3.5 Becomes World’s Most Popular Browser

WebProNews: Firefox 3.5 Currently Most Popular Browser in the World

WebMonkey: Browser Stats: Firefox 3.5 Is More Popular Than IE 7 or IE 8

ZDNet: Firefox 3.5: World’s most popular browser

On Oct 30, Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 Beta 1.  Then on November 11, Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 Beta 2.

These betas of Firefox 3.6 introduced several new features:

• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.
• A mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing Firefox.

Beta 1 coverage highlights:

CNET, ComputerWorld, Internetnews.com, PC Mag, PC Pro, PCWorld, ReadWriteWeb, ZDNet

Beta 2 coverage highlights:

BetaNews, CNET, DailyTech, DownloadSquad, GoMo News, InternetNews.com, Lifehacker, PCMagazine, The H,  Webmonkey, WebWorkerDaily

On Oct 20, Mozilla joined several organizations in endorsing the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) specification.  We also announced the intent to implement the specification starting in Firefox 3.6.

Wired’s Michael Calore on the WOFF spec:

This is a significant step forward not only for the emerging open format, but also for type on the web in general, which is still stuck in a state of mild turmoil.

For years, designers have been limited to using only a set of five or six common fonts on the web. But thanks to new font rendering tools within the emerging HTML5 and CSS3 standards, web designers now have the ability to use newer, more visually interesting typefaces — and make that type appear more consistently across browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions.

Coverage highlights include:

CNET, Technology Review, Webmonkey, Holy Info, The H, and Online PC.

We’ve had a phenomenally busy few months at Mozilla.  I’m pleased to share a number of highlights from Mozilla’s media coverage around the 3.5 launch and more!

First up, Firefox 3.5 launched to much fanfare and widespread coverage in major media outlets including USA Today, Fast Company, Seattle Times,  ABC News, MTV, BusinessWeek, CNET, NPR, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, and more.  Firefox 3.5 also enjoyed top trending topic status on Twitter on launch day.  If you look closely, you can see that we’re beat Michael Jackson

Last week, John Lilly was a guest on the NBC Bay Area show Press:Here, a Sunday morning news roundtable discussion show about Silicon Valley featuring top tech leaders and world class technology reporters.  You can view the segment here.   Creative Commons VP, Mike Linksvayer is interviewed immediately after John so be sure to check out the full episode!

And finally, this past weekend Mozilla was featured in The New York Times Sunday Business section.  The article includes photos of Mitchell Baker, John Lilly, and a number of Mozilla engineers in Mountain View and Toronto (via video satellite).

On Tuesday, our mobile team released Fennec 1.0 Beta 1!

Scott Gilbertson at Wired writes, “The latest Fennec beta brings in two new features from its desktop cousin — The “awesome bar” search engine, which makes it easier to get to frequently visited sites with less typing; and also new is  TraceMonkey, the same, much-improved JavaScript engine set to arrive in Firefox 3.5. Other improvements in the latest release include faster panning, better zoom tools, and other performance related tweaks.”

You can read more about this important mobile milestone in TechCrunch, Lifehacker, CNET, Ars Technica, Network World, Gizmodo, and PC World.

On January 26, Mozilla announced a $100,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation to advance open video.  The announcement was communicated via blog posts from Mike Shaver, VP of Engineering, Mozilla, Chris Blizzard, Director of Evangelism, Mozilla, Erik Möller, Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation, and blog.mozilla.com.

The announcement was covered in The New York Times, Ars Technica, PC World, TechCrunch, FOSSwire, WIRED and many others.  You can view all the trackbacks at the bottom of the original blog.mozilla.com post.

On Monday, we announced the release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2.  To date there have been more than 25 total articles. Reporters have continued to focus on how the updated browser includes the new Private Browsing Mode and how it allows users to surf the Web without leaving locally stored records of online activities.

Coverage highlights include articles in Ars Technica, Computerworld, InformationWeek, CNET, Technologizer, Mashable, PC Magazine, and Wired.

European coverage includes:

Poland:  Gazeta.pl Technologie, PCWorld.pl, Twoje.pc, PCLab.pl

Germany: Markenpost, Big Screen, Linux Magazine, PC Professionell

France: eWeek, MacPlus, CNet, Les Numeriques

Italy: eBizItalia, Punto Informatico, HW Gadget, ZeusNews

UK: The Register, Vnunet.com, ProPortal.com, TechRadar.com

Spain: The Inquirer, Muy Computer.com, Geekets, GenBeta.com

Last week, Mozilla and Zazzle announced a strategic partnership and launched the Mozilla Community Store!  At the Mozilla Community Store, you can browse the gallery to shop from an array of community generated designs. Designs consist entirely of artwork supplied by Mozilla’s worldwide community, with all designs available for customization on over 400 apparel products including t-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops. To get things started, we’ve seeded the store with over 50 designs from the Firefox 3 t-shirt design contest, but you can also start from scratch and add your own!

US coverage highlights include: TechCrunch, Lifehacker, Startupmeme, and Zazzle’s blog.