Microsoft started sending updates to Windows computers in Europe in early March that launches a pop-up screen telling them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.<\/p>\n
Opera Software ASA said European downloads of its newest desktop browser increased 130 percent between March 12-14, after the updates were sent out. It saw the highest increase in Poland, where downloads went up 328 percent.<\/p>\n
The company’s chief technology officer Hakon Wium Lie said this confirms that users will try alternative software when given a choice.<\/p>\n
Some 100 million Europeans using Microsoft software will be asked to choose between rival browsers by mid-May in a concession the company made to EU regulators in return for them dropping an antitrust case. The EU executive said the move would foster competition.<\/p>\n
Opera triggered the EU case by complaining that attaching Internet Explorer to Windows was an unfair way for Microsoft to put its Web software on most of the world’s computers.<\/p>\n
The top five browsers – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Google Inc.’s Chrome, Apple Inc.’s Safari and Opera, are now given prominent placement on the pop-up choice screen.<\/p>\n
The selections will rotate from computer to computer, so none of the these five browsers will always be first.<\/p>\n
Far smaller competitors such as Avant Browser, Flock, Green Browser, K-Meleon, Maxthon, Sleipnir and Slim Browser also will be displayed if the user scrolls sideways.<\/p>\n