“This January, the European Commission (EC) announced it would investigate Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer (IE) with Windows. The EC thought that perhaps throwing an IE in with every copy of Windows was harming competition between web browsers and reducing consumer choice. And you can see their point: Internet Explorer makes up 67.7% of the European browser market, and Firefox comes in second at 25.3% (as of Q1 2009),” Jenny Boriss, Firefox User Experience Designer, blogs.
“As Mozilla is an interested party in the browser market in Europe, Mitchell Baker created a list of potential principles to be followed in the EC case, which Microsoft drew on heavily in their settlement proposal. The third principle she wrote was that Windows must enable people to choose other browsers,” Boriss writes.
“In response to this, Microsoft came up with an all-American proposal: a vote! Give users a ballot in XP, Vista, and Windows 7, and let them pick the browser they want from a list. Liking the cut of that gib, the EC gave Microsoft the go-ahead begin formal market testing of the ballot. On October 7, the EC announced a formal settlement proposal,” Boriss writes. “Awesome, right?”
Boriss writes, “Wrong.”
“The current design that Microsoft has proposed includes a whopping 10-17 browsers to choose from,” Boriss explains. “The five most popular (IE8, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome) would be grouped together on the first screen, and the rest would be visible if the user scrolls horizontally. At first, it was proposed that the browser be listed in order of market share (first IE, then Firefox, etc). However, since unfair market share is the reason the EC got hot and bothered in the first place, the current design puts the browsers in alphabetical order by name of the company that creates them. That means the first item is Apple Safari, then Google Chrome, etc.”
“This ordering is about the worst option possible, both for user choice and the web as a whole. Microsoft wrote in their proposal that ‘nothing in the design and implementation of the Ballot Screen and the presentation of competing web browsers will express a bias for a Microsoft web browser or any other web browser,’ but this is exactly what the current design does. Windows users presented with the current design will tend to make only two choices: IE because they are familiar with it, or Safari because it is the first item,” Boriss writes. “Users selecting the IE logo because it is the image they associate with using the internet isn’t too surprising. After all, many users do not know or care that other browser are available. But the disproportionate advantage to Safari is what really makes this design poor.”
Boriss writes, “By presenting Safari as the first item in a list, this ballot implies that it is the item recommended to most users… So what’s so bad about presenting Safari as the first, recommended item? Aside from being unfair to the other browsers, the problem is that past consumer choice has shown that Safari does not provide an ideal browsing experience on Windows… Safari has the smallest market share of the five other browsers at 2.6%. Frankly, Safari is a good browser for Apple computers, but Apple hasn’t put much effort to make it competitive on Windows. It’s just not their priority. So, by listing Safari first, the ballot is presenting as the recommended item the browser that is least likely to be the one the user wants. This leads to users having a bad experience using the web, and ultimately hurts the user and the market.”
Boriss continues whining like a widdle baby in her full rant here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jenny’s fear is palpable. Safari is the only web browser that provides an ideal browsing experience on Windows: Only Safari scores an Acid3 perfect score of 100/100 and passes both the pixel-perfect rendering and performance tests. Boriss should be working on getting Firefox up to par instead of trying to talk down a browser that kicks its whiny ass in standards compliance. We challenge Windows users to download Safari 4 for Windows, importing their bookmarks (favorites) and committing to trying it for one week. More info about and download link for Apple’s free Safari 4, the world’s fastest web browser, for Mac and Windows here.
All that said, we have no problem with randomizing the ballot screen (one of Boriss’ suggestions), but we do not agree with using market share weighting as most popular hardly ever equal best (exceptions being Coca-Cola, iPod, and iTunes, for three examples).
And Apple should get a large Apple logo on there immediately; no sense not leveraging the world’s most famous logo!
@MDN Take most popular hardly ever equal best (exceptions being Coca-Cola…)
Oh snap! It’s on Pepsi drinkers!!!
You MUST be fscking kidding “ideal browsing experience on Windows”. Of all main browsers Safari is the most unstable under Windows, it’s very very limiting too, power users will be much comfortable with Firefox by far. I do web development and sure, Safari is the most complient making my job easier, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a Windows user.
thankyou MS, thanks for your patronage, Office etc.
Good three choices MDN
I second PackDM.
I used Safari for Windows for months after dumping it for Firefox. Not even one financial institution’s online banking webpage where I hold an account, shows up properly on Safari. And for the rest of the pages on the net, it’s also slow and a ram hog.
On the Mac, however, it’s slim, mean and screaming fast (although I still have to use Firefox just for online banking).
Perhaps Mozilla should change it’s name to Aardvark. Just as reasonable a name.
That would do it for them re the alphabet wars and may shut them up
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So the only possible “reasonable” option is to put Mozilla Firefox first. Now that’s fair…
How about drawing sticks? Wait, Firefox came out third. Best two out of three?
Firefox has apparently done OK without even being on a ballot. I don’t see why they are so upset. What about the browser options that you have to scroll to see? Those are the ones that are doomed to everlasting obscurity.
Let’s just reiterate this for PackoDM, et al:
“Safari is the only web browser that provides an ideal browsing experience on Windows: Only Safari scores an Acid3 perfect score of 100/100 and passes both the pixel-perfect rendering and performance tests.”
They’re all on the same level, with Expolorer front-and-center. Explorer has an unfair advantage, not Safari. In fact, the two on the ends may be at a disadvantage–but it’s all a trivial factor compared to IE’s advantage.
Yes, Coca-Cola rocks!
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have the advantage, with their colored boxes. Maybe Safari and Chrome should complain that all of them should just use the white of the page?
These tards are running windows for their os, u really think you can convince them to run a better browser???
FSCK-ing unreal.
What a freakin’ idiot this chick is.
Makes me second-guess using Mozilla software…
I disagree with the coca-cola. I’ve tasted better colas, but those come from smaller brands and usually with steeper price.
I never realized that I feel the same way about Pepsi as I do about Windows. Both are adequate but never first choice. Thanks for the awakening! What an enlightening site you have.
I think the most controversial and important idea in this article is the MDN statement that Coca Cola is the best soda..
Coke sucks! Pepsi is clearly the better soda, c’mon coke never came up with Coke clear. Pepsi clear one of the most underrated drinks of the 20th century.
@PackoDM ( Pack O Dung Meat )
Riiight, only because your lover MS started injected non compliance, non standard junk into IE to propagate their triple “E” program. Monopolizing the Internet is their big program push for years.
Safari has the smallest market share of the five other browsers at 2.6%.
Um, is that correct? Last I saw Safari was around the 5% range, and Opera was dead last. Or is she speaking strictly from a Windows browser standpoint?
I can’t speak to how good or bad Safari might be on the Windows platform, but the whiny tone and insulting attitude she takes (presuming people will just click the leftmost option without thinking) is quite distasteful. And it reflects very poorly on Mozilla, no matter how much she tries to disassociate your comments from them. (Certainly my respect for Mozilla has continued to diminish every time they’re quoted in relation to the EU browser situation.)
Oops, that should be: “…no matter how much she tries to disassociate her comments from them.”
@Saldin:
‘Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online’ (http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/22723/)
Doesn’t matter which browser, don’t do it.
Personally, I really like Safari on Windows for the limited web surfing I still do on Windows. If I HAD to use Windows as sole OS, I would probably go with Firefox for everyday stuff.
i hate coke, im off this site forever
Many studies show people tend to pick the middle option of a list. I don’t think it’s an accident that IE is in the middle.
So I guess MAC OS X, Linus, etc will have to do the same. Of course not because this is bullshit to say the least!!! If one has to do all should!!!
@m159:
Although a 100/100 ACID3 score is admirable it doesn’t magically make the webpages I need to visit completely unusable.
Yes, I know, we have Microsoft to thank for that, but if Firefox does render them correctly for me, why can’t Safari?
And still, Safari for Windows continues to be slow and a ram hog.
And let it be noted that the fact that Apple releases Mac and Windows versions simultaneously, something that no other big software house does (I’m looking at you Google Chrome), is worthy of praise.
Maybe there’s a reason people prefer Firefox over Safari on Windows, which in no way makes Jenny Boriss less of a whiner and a sore loser, or her accusation worthy of being taken seriously.
Rearranging the order of browser options for Windows is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.