Microsoft offers browser choice to ease European antitrust concerns
By DPA, IANSMonday, March 1, 2010
SEATTLE - Microsoft has issued a new software download that will let European users of Windows operating system decide if they wish to keep Internet Explorer as their computer’s default browser, the company said Monday.
The move is designed to ease concerns of European regulators that the Microsoft browser was getting an unfair advantage over its competitors because it comes as the default browser on Microsoft’s dominant Windows operating system.
The new software update installs a pop-up window on users’ PCs that prompts them to pick which of 12 surfing tools they would like to set as their default browser. In addition to Internet Explorer the choices also include Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome and the Norwegian browser Opera.
The move comes as a new survey by NetApplications revealed that Internet Explorer is still used by 61 percent of all web surfers last month, compared to 24 percent who used Firefox, five percent for Chrome, four percent for Safari and just two percent for Opera.
