Browser ballot boosts Opera downloads in the UK

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Web browser Opera says UK downloads have risen by 85 per cent since the introduction of Internet Explorer's web browser ballot earlier this month.

The company has released a country-by-country breakdown of the proportion of its downloads that have come directly from the EU-wide Choice Screen since its introduction, sampling numbers over a three-day period from 12-14 March and comparing them against typical figures.

Overall, it said nearly half of its new users having been coming via the browser ballot, leading to user numbers nearly doubling.

And impressive though the UK numbers are, elsewhere the numbers are even more impressive. Overall, Poland topped the chart ahead of Spain and Italy, with 77 per cent of all Opera downloads in Poland over the three days having come courtesy of the browser ballot, leading to user numbers more than trebling.

Across the continent, Opera says the ballot has led to an overall increase of 130 per cent in users, with just over half having come via the new measures.

“This confirms that when users are given a real choice on how they choose the most important piece of software on their computer, the browser, they will try out alternatives,” Opera chief technology officer Håkon Wium Lie said in a statement. “A multitude of browsers will make the web more standardised and easier to browse.”

One reason suggested for the UK's position well down the list is the possibility that the country already has a wider consumer awareness of the existence of alternatives to Internet Explorer than other European markets. Just four countries have seen a lower impact to Opera downloads – Czech Republic, Germany, Norway and Hungary.

Following a deal struck with the European Commission after Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with copies of Windows was found to be anti-competitive, the browser ballot was introduced to IE users in the UK in late February, and rolled out via Windows Update to all European users at the beginning of March.

The Choice Screen presents a total of 12 browser options to Windows users, with the five major browsers – including Internet Explorer – offered in random order, and a further seven available by scrolling across the screen.

The other major browsers included in the ballot – Firefox, Chrome and Safari – have yet to reveal the impact the Choice Screen has had on their own download numbers. However, changes are likely to be less dramatic, with Opera the smallest of the five given an equal share of the ballot screen's default view and therefore likely to have seen the greatest impact.

Read on to find out how the browser ballot could change the online market.

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