Microsoft is ready to make a key concession to settle the European browser wars. In order to address the concerns of two rival browser makers, Microsoft will suggest a browser ballot that is randomly generated, rather than a ballot with products in fixed positions, a source told The New York Times.
The software giant is facing an antitrust case on bundling Internet Explorer in Windows. Opera Software, the Norwegian publisher of the opera browser, has complained that Microsoft cannot be allowed the competitive advantage of having Internet Explorer set as the default browser for European Windows users.
Microsoft previously offered a ballot solution in which users would be presented with a screen to choose a default browser. Clicking on a browser icon would automatically download and install that browser on the user’s system.
Going Random
The original ballot was to present browser choices alphabetically, giving prime position to Apple’s Safari. Mozilla, Google and Opera were upset about that choice. The new proposal would generate the listing randomly, so no one company receives prime position more than another.
The ballot screen would come with Windows 7 PCs sold in Europe and be delivered to existing Windows systems via Microsoft’s automatic update service.
While Microsoft maintains a commanding lead in browser market share in Europe, its lead is slipping. Sixty-two percent of European users ran IE in September, down from 64.6 percent in March, according to AT Internet Institute, a French research firm. Mozilla Firefox’s share rose from 27.8 to 28.4 percent and Apple’s Safari rose a point from 3.3 percent to 4.3 percent. Google’s Chrome had just 2.8 percent, and Opera 2.2 percent.
Mid-December Approval
The conflict dates from December 2007, when Opera filed a complaint with the European Union accusing Microsoft of antitrust violations because of the IE bundling. The EU investigated for more than a year, until…