ThunderBrowse Case Study
Client: Myself (and in the end, thousands of Thunderbird users)
Project: ThunderBrowse
Services Provided: Website creation, Content Creation, Browser Software, Software Promotion, Support, Utilities, Blog, Graphic Design, Tracker installation
Thunderbird needed a browser, or something that would allow for fast link previews of websites and such. Or a faster browser loading process. Unfortunately, it didn't have any of those. And it normally took forever to load a browser that was triggered from a link clicked in Thunderbird.
So I decided to create a browser for myself so I could view links easily. Once I saw that other users were looking for a function like what I created, I uploaded it to addons.mozilla.org because I wanted to share a solution with others.
This version was called URLbar for Thunderbird, as originally, all it did was allow a user to type in a url and go to it. Within the first hour, I had 240 downloads of URLbar. The next day it was within 650 and 842 downloads. By then, users were writing for new features like history (back and forward) buttons, refresh, the ability to left click on links and load in the browser, button icons, full screen mode, search shortcuts, GET and POST form compatibility and such. URLbar for Thunderbird started to have a rapidly growing user base, with users promoting and submitting it to websites, telling others and such.
So I started to add some of the user submitted suggestions to URLbar for Thunderbird, which later became ThunderBrowse. I had gotten permission from Iconaholic Design to use some of their icons in ThunderBrowse.
As time went on, ThunderBrowse improved and finally became what it is today.
ThunderBrowse became a huge success, with a ton of downloads and a bunch of happy users, it rose to the top. It was featured on the download.com frontpage twice, given 4/5 stars from Softonic, achieved Download of the Day status from Lifehacker, mentioned on a ton of blogs and websites, and made it to many users extensions lists.
Shortened to save space
ThunderBrowse now has it's own website and domain, where users can read about new developments, features, learn about ThunderBrowse and be able to download a copy for themselves.
What started as a small project became something big for a lot of users.
If you want to read more, here are some links: