Browser ballot effects trickling through
There’s more evidence that the “browser ballot” screen rolling out to Windows users in Europe is benefiting rivals to Internet Explorer. But it’s still too early to say there will be a mass migration.
Last week Opera noted downloads had tripled since the screen began appearing in a few countries. Take that with a pinch of salt as the rise coincided with a new edition of the browser being released, though the firm maintains the increase is still higher than would normally be expected.
Now Mozilla says it’s traced 50,000 downloads which came specifically from the Windows screen. However, that’s not a major change given the firm reports it can get up to half a million downloads across Europe on some single days.
As the browser screen is still only being tested, it’s difficult to put these figures into context. Still, it’s notable that at least 50,000 people who have of course never had any barrier to installing Firefox before have done so as a direct result of the screen appearing, suggesting that either inertia or a lack of awareness really has been a barrier to IE rivals.
Meanwhile Microsoft has fixed a problem that meant the order of the five main browsers on the screen was not as random as it should have been. The quick fix may have been motivated by the fact that Internet Explorer was the biggest victim of the problem, though it could also be designed to stave off any complaints or legal action from other browser manufacturers which were losing out.
Still, the complaints keep coming. The BBC notes one web designer has formally protested to the European Union that the choice of browsers is biased towards Microsoft. Richard Quick bases that argument on the fact that five of the 12 (including Internet Explorer) use the same rendering engine, Trident. He believes this breaches the fine print of the agreement between Microsoft and the EU and that it undermines the adoption of web standards.
It’s unlikely Quick’s protest will get anywhere. The 12 browsers were selected on existing market share in Europe rather than any subjective decisions.
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