Cast your vote today in the Microsoft browser ballot. Will sure fire favourites Firefox and Internet Explorer (i.e) remain at the top of the tree or will there be a new sheriff in town?

I’ve always been taught the way to attain more knowledge is to give away everything you know. The way to become a better designer followed a similar pattern…give away your ideas, don’t be overly precious and above all force yourself to find a better solution. Well Microsoft Windows have taken a similar stance by offering users a whole host of other excellent browsers (in their start screen) including Firefox, Opera and Chrome. All of these are an improvement on i.e which was formerly the default browser for windows.

In the title I talk of a new sheriff winning the browser ballot….well the stock of little known browsers such as Avant, Flock, Green Browser, Maxthon, Sleipnir and Slim is sure to soar as users experiment with the new options being presented to them.

Opera makes big noise
The browser I would recommend to go for from these options is Opera who have timely releases a new version of their browser Opera 10.5. The main draw with Opera is that it is the fastest browser out there and its overall performance ranks it as the finest current browser. The only drawback with this winner is that it is only available for Windows PC’s at present although versions for Mac and Linux are promised soon.

Let’s begin the browser ballot
The initiative will begin in Europe where up to 200m Windows PC users will be presented with a “Web browser choice screen” screen in a scheme which helped resolve the European Commission’s anti-trust complaints against Microsoft. At present IE has the largest global market share with 61.6%, ahead of Mozilla Firefox (24.2%), Google Chrome (5.6%), Apple Safari (4.5%), and Opera (2.4%).

The death of i.e?
I.e’s share of the market has been in decline for a while and I guess Microsoft have seen this trend and want to offer users a better service. There have been campaigns for a while now to bring down i.e6 most notably in .net magazine, as it is the most troublesome browser to build a website in. With the introduction of new browsers to the mass market it is hoped by designers that i.e will plummet in the rankings. The fact remains however that many large corporations still use older browsers like i.e6 and these corporations are still likely to prove a stumbling block in the downfall of ie6! There is also a threat of cybercriminals taking advantage of this browser ballot, and breaching security by creating fake browsers which in fact contain viruses.

Despite these problems I think this is a great move by Microsoft and will certainly improve the online experience for new users.

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