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Mozilla: Browser Ballot Glitch Cost Us 9m Firefox Downloads

Posted by timothy on from the prisoner-failed-to-provide-enough-rope dept.

nk497 writes with this selection from PC Pro magazine: "Microsoft's failure to include the EU browser ballot in Windows 7 SP1 cost Mozilla as many as 9 million Firefox downloads, the organisation's head of business affairs revealed. Harvey Anderson said daily downloads of Firefox fell by 63% to a low of 20,000 before the ballot was reinstated, and after the fix, downloads jumped by 150% to 50,000 a day. Over the 18 months the ballot was missing, that adds up to six to nine million downloads — although it's tough to tell if the difference has more to do with Chrome's success or the lack of advertising on Windows systems. The EU is currently investigating the 'glitch,' and Microsoft faces a massive fine for failing to include the screen, which offers download details for different browsers to European Windows users, as part of measures ordered by the EU to balance IE's dominance." Reader Dupple points to coverage at ZDnet, too.

21 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Holy shit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's three days ago!

    1. Re:Holy shit! by an00bis · · Score: 3, Funny

      yo, dawg, I herd you like old news, so I put old news in your old news so you can reminisce while you deja vu

  2. Super Duper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/10/31/178256/windows-browser-ballot-glitch-cost-firefox-6-9-million-downloads

    1. Re:Super Duper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot: Editor glitch causes excessive reposting!

      (News at 11)

    2. Re:Super Duper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I suspect within a week we will see the news singularity, at which point the same story will be the only article on Slashdot, reposted for ever.

      Or better editorial control.

    3. Re:Super Duper by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

      You have to give timothy a break. It's obvious that he can't read, and has simply been trained to click a button for food.

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    4. Re:Super Duper by crazyjj · · Score: 3, Funny

      Tomorrow's headline: "Mozilla Claims Slashdot Dupe Cost Them 2 Billion Downloads."

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  3. Dupe Dupeington by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, we know. Soulskill already posted this story.

    Christ timothy, are you really that incompetent?

  4. Sounds familiar by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Funny

    Reader Bogtha points to coverage at Slashdot, too.

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    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  5. More things change, more they stay the same by bittmann · · Score: 3, Informative
    timothy is in fine form

    Same submitter, even!

  6. Re:Repeat from Yesterday by Desler · · Score: 2

    Actually this is the SAME submission that was posted yesterday.

  7. timothy has a glitch as well by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 2

    Apparently timothy has a glitch as well affecting his selection of articles.

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  8. If it wasn't for wallstreet... by Shados · · Score: 2

    If it wasn't for wallstreet and the constant need for "growth" quarter after quarter, I wonder how long it would be before Microsoft considers the cost of doing business in the EU to be too high to be worth it.

    They were convicted of abusing a monopoly and have to pay for it, but the market is completely different today than it was back then. And as much as it would make some people here happy, is a market with just Apple, Linux and Google best for customers? In world that's quickly becoming a phone/tablet world, Microsoft won't have a majority marketshare for very long, and the barrier for entry is incredibly high for another player to replace them...

    1. Re:If it wasn't for wallstreet... by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

      If it wasn't for wallstreet and the constant need for "growth" quarter after quarter, I wonder how long it would be before Microsoft considers the cost of doing business in the EU to be too high to be worth it.

      They were convicted of abusing a monopoly and have to pay for it, but the market is completely different today than it was back then. And as much as it would make some people here happy, is a market with just Apple, Linux and Google best for customers? In world that's quickly becoming a phone/tablet world, Microsoft won't have a majority marketshare for very long, and the barrier for entry is incredibly high for another player to replace them...

      I think you must be a little confused about the importance of the EU, considering the US has only 500 Million compared to EU's 750 million. Its simply a larger market for Microsoft than the US. How arrogant are you?

      Microsoft is still the same abusive monopoly it always was. Just because its a massive failure in mobile [apart from the using the elf same abusive practice that got it slapped with the ballot in the first place], and a massive failure on the internet [despite using the self same practices that got it slapped with the ballot in the first place]

      Lets be honest Microsoft has not changed; Companies like Apple and Google simply had better products in markets where Microsoft wasn't, and now are rich enough not to be pushed around by Microsoft.

      Personally I would love to see Microsoft withdraw from the EU too. It would create competition that has sadly still lacking on the desktop.

  9. Re:Repeat from Yesterday by masternerdguy · · Score: 2

    holy shit it's Groundhog Day I guess

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  10. Timothy must be sad by captain_dope_pants · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dupe submissions could easily be avoided if Timothy was happy - causing his brain to produce a level of gamma waves - specifically those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory.

    --
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  11. Not sure the need to spread lies by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not necessarily Microsoft that had people switching. Fire Firefox's ever growing memory footprint, and frequent update cycle that broke extensions are main reasons people stopped downloading FF.

    Wow. What a load of nonsense, Firefox has a tiny footprint stop spreading this lie. As for the frequent update cycle, that may be an enterprise issue, but why would it be for a home user. I stopped looking at extensions breaking a long time ago. I think you would have a hard lime listing one popular addon that is not working under firefox 16.

    Again http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-chrome-20-firefox-13-opera-12,3228.html Chrome does win these tests, but not on lies, but by being a great browser.

    1. Re:Not sure the need to spread lies by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

      Must be something about 20-30 tabs and running for 7+ days at a time. Chrome has no issues with this.
      My anecdotal experience.

      As opposed to benchmarked or at least backed up with an about:memory. Your abnormal usage even if it were true is ridiculous considering how wonderful quit/restart works. Although in my equally useless anecdotal experience firefox runs great with more than that...want me to post a video :)

      Seriously Chrome is great browser, but so is Firefox.

  12. Re:Is it just me or... by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    does anyone else think this is sad that Moz is bringing up how many downloads it lost to this "glitch". It's like saying we totally depend on Microsoft to make our browser popular. Otherwise we have no chance against IE or Chrome.

    Oh wait...

    Not waiting. The idea behind the ballot is simple, create an even footing for the browsers to compete. With all things being even Firefox does better. Lets face it nobody uses IE because its good. Personally I wonder if Microsoft was made to install Firefox as default it would have many downloads of IE ;)

    Personally I love competition, and would hate to go back to the dark days of IE 10.

  13. Re:And? by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    What exactly is Mozilla's point here? Not like they lost any money as their browser is free.

    They have exactly lost money on this. They earn money from selling "search engine default to the highest bidder". The less users they have the less negotiating power they have, and that is not all they have lost, in addition mindshare, and brand power. This is especially harmful considering Mozilla is planning new markets.

  14. Re:Before you complain by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

    Since I like Chrome, I'll use the Google Store.
    Now, how to get to the Google store without a browser...

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