BrowserChoice.eu

The web browser choice screen, also known as the web browser ballot box, was a screen displayed in Internet Explorer that offered ten to twelve browsers in a random order.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2010/02/19/the-browser-choice-screen-for-europe-what-to-expect-when-to-expect-it.aspx |title=The Browser Choice Screen for Europe: What to Expect, When to Expect It |publisher=Microsoft |last=Heiner |first=Dave |date=19 February 2010 |accessdate=24 June 2011 }} The screen was presented only to Windows users whose default web browser was Internet Explorer. It affected the European Economic Area,{{cite press release |url=http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-16Statement.mspx |title=Microsoft Statement on European Commission Decision |publisher=Microsoft |date=16 December 2009 |accessdate=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217083729/http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-16Statement.mspx |archive-date=17 December 2011 |url-status=dead}} Croatia, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.{{cite web |url=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/ff606439.aspx |title=Browser Choice FAQ |publisher=Microsoft |accessdate=2013-01-22 }} A patch was made available via Windows Update to provide the screen to users.{{cite web |url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Microsoft-liefert-Web-Browser-Auswahlfenster-ab-17-Maerz-aus-935566.html |title=Microsoft liefert Web-Browser-Auswahlfenster ab 17. März aus |publisher=heise online |language=German |date=19 February 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }} It was distributed under the Microsoft Knowledge Base ID number 976002; after the website was discontinued in December 2014, the update was removed from Microsoft Update Catalog.

The browser choice screen listed 10 to 12 browsers in random order; the top tier of five were immediately visible and the remaining ones could be seen by scrolling the list. The order of the browsers on the page was initially planned to be alphabetical, but after criticism a random system was used with two groups.

The first group included the five most used browsers ‒ Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and initially Safari but later Maxthon ‒ representing the four major rendering engines (Trident, Gecko, Blink and WebKit). The second group contained less well-known browsers, also in random order: at different times this group included Avant Browser, Comodo Dragon, Flock, GreenBrowser, K-Meleon, Lunascape, Maxthon, Rockmelt, SRWare Iron, Sleipnir, and SlimBrowser.

The initial March 2010 list had Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari in the first tier, with Avant Browser, Flock, GreenBrowser, K-Meleon, Maxthon, Sleipnir and SlimBrowser in the second tier. In August 2010 Microsoft removed GreenBrowser and Sleipnir from the choices, replacing them with Lunascape and SRWare Iron.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822062000/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=22 August 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100828094328/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=28 August 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }} In November 2011 Microsoft reduced the number of second tier browsers from the previous seven to six. They removed Flock and SlimBrowser, but re-established Sleipnir.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103214224/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=3 November 2011 |accessdate=6 February 2013}}

In February 2012 Microsoft increased the number of second tier browsers to seven: Comodo Dragon and Rockmelt were added, while Sleipnir was removed again.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224114437/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=24 February 2012 |accessdate=6 February 2013}} In August 2012 Microsoft removed Apple Safari from the first tier due to the browser's discontinuation on Windows, and replaced it with Maxthon. SlimBrowser was added back to the second tier.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919182030/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=19 September 2012 |accessdate=6 February 2013}} In February 2013 Microsoft removed SlimBrowser from the second tier and replaced it with Sleipnir.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130226201610/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |archivedate=26 February 2013 |accessdate=28 February 2013}}

In May 2013 Microsoft removed Rockmelt from the second tier.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |accessdate=30 May 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530112827/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archivedate=30 May 2013 }} By May 2014 Microsoft had removed Comodo Dragon from the second tier.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |accessdate=18 December 2014 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516183141/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archivedate=16 May 2014}} In September 2014 Comodo was returned to the second tier, replacing Avant Browser.{{cite web |url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |title=Information Regarding Web Browsers |website=BrowserChoice.eu |accessdate=18 December 2014 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903235102/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm |archivedate=3 September 2014 }} In December 2014 the website was discontinued.

Competing browsers saw their traffic increase,{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/technology/08browser.html |title=Microsoft Gives Rival Browsers a Lift |last=Pfanner |first=Eric |work=The New York Times |date=7 March 2010 |accessdate=7 March 2010 }} suggesting that these smaller competing developers were gaining users. However, long-term trends show browsers such as Opera and Firefox losing market share in Europe, calling into question the usefulness of the browser choice screen.

The order of the browsers on screen was at first insufficiently random, which led to uneven distribution.{{cite web |url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/22/microsoft-ballot-screen |title=How Random Is Microsoft's Random Browser Choice Screen in Europe? |publisher=TechCrunch |last=Wauters |first=Robin |date=22 February 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }}{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/03/coding-error-leads-to-uneven-eu-browser-ballot-distribution |title=Coding error leads to uneven EU browser ballot distribution |publisher=Ars Technica |last=Bright |first=Peter |date=2 March 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }} This was later fixed by Microsoft.{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/09/microsoft_browser_ballot_update |title=Microsoft rejiggers EU browser ballot after complaints |publisher=The Register |last=Metz |first=Cade |date=9 March 2010 |accessdate=14 October 2012 }}

At the time of its inception, half of the suggested browsers used Internet Explorer's Trident rendering engine, thus users who choose web browsers other than Internet Explorer for the intention of avoiding it might still end up using IE's layout engine.{{cite web |last=Ward |first=Mark |date=3 March 2010 |title=Microsoft browser ballot criticised for being 'limited' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8545237.stm |accessdate=14 October 2012 |publisher=BBC}} This had resulted in criticism amongst the web development community even though Microsoft was adhering to the court agreement's methodology.

Opera Software complained that the ballot screen could not be reached in some cases because of the start configuration screens of IE.{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/03/windows_ie_browser_ballot_screen |title=Opera alerts EU to hidden Windows browser-ballot |last=Clarke |first=Gavin |date=3 April 2010 |publisher=The Register |accessdate=8 April 2010 }} In 2012 Microsoft had issues with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 no longer leading new users in the European Union to the page. The Windows 7 SP1 retail release was initially missing BrowserChoice.eu functionality, affecting 28 million computers. The error remained unpatched for 14 months, and as a result in March 2013 the European Commission fined Microsoft €561 million.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21684329 |title=Microsoft fined by European Commission over web browser |publisher=BBC |date=6 March 2013 |accessdate=6 March 2013}} Windows 8 was also released without the browser choice screen functionality and patched several days after the release. Mozilla's general counsel estimated that 6–9 million downloads of Firefox web browser alone were lost due to the mistake.{{Cite news |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-lost-6-9-million-downloads-in-eu-browser-choice-glitch/ |title=Firefox lost 6–9 million downloads in EU browser choice 'glitch' |last=Whittaker |first=Zach |publisher=ZDNet |date=31 October 2012 |access-date=6 February 2013 }}{{Cite news |url=https://www.theverge.com/2012/9/10/3307564/windows-8-browser-choice-europe-windows-update |title=Windows 8 browser choice update now available in Europe |last=Warren |first=Tom |publisher=The Verge |date=10 September 2012 |accessdate=6 February 2013 }}

Makers of the second-tier browsers Flock, Avant, GreenBrowser, Maxthon, Sleipnir, and Slim sent a petition to the EU to get Microsoft to add text or a graphic (rather than just the slider) indicating that there are more than five browsers.[http://flock.com/petition_to_the_european_commission.pdf Petition To The European Commission] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030021348/http://flock.com/petition_to_the_european_commission.pdf|date=30 October 2010}} Microsoft responded by stating: "We (Microsoft) do not plan on making any changes at this time."{{cite web |last=Shankland |first=Stephen |date=5 March 2010 |title=Minor browsers seek more prominence in Europe |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000129-264.html |accessdate=14 October 2012 |work=CNET}}

• European Union Microsoft competition case
• United States v. Microsoft Corp.
• Criticism of Microsoft
• Microsoft litigation

{{reflist}}

• {{web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220220124/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm|title=Official website}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm|title=List of URLs, ordered from newer to older, for «Information Regarding Web Browsers» from 23 Mar 2010 to 3 Sep 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-09-03}}

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