Word: browser
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Starting in March, people who use the Microsoft system Windows 7, XP or Vista in Europe will be offered a choice of 12 different search engines, rather than just the already installed Microsoft browser, Internet Explorer. The company will also allow computer makers to set any browser as default, not just Explorer. (See TIME's computer covers...
...While it may seem a trivial issue to allow rivals like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari to put their icons on Microsoft screens, the concession could signal the end of the company's domination of the browser market. Until now, Microsoft has used its near monopoly in operating systems to foist Explorer on Windows users - despite the fact that the browser is widely derided by computer experts and everyday users alike as being clunky. Critics say this brutal marketing strategy explains why Explorer accounts for about 64% of global Internet traffic, followed by Firefox at 25% and Safari and Google...
...OpenForum Europe (OFE), a nonprofit lobbying group advocating open-source software, says Microsoft's tactics have also stifled the browser market, making innovation difficult. But this could change now that Microsoft's competitors will have greater access to consumers. New features and applications are always being introduced in the mobile-computing market, for example, where no dominant operating system exists. "With real browser choice, we expect innovation to take off," says Graham Taylor, the chief executive of OFE. (See pictures of Microsoft's Project Natal in action...
...rivals are hailing the deal as a turning point for the industry. "I think this settlement has the potential to change the status quo," says Sundar Pichai, head of Google's Chrome browser team. "Most consumers in the past have chosen Internet Explorer because it came on their computers. Now the decision will be made on the merits...
...technologies increasingly mashing up, Microsoft is also apparently starting to accept the fact that its fortunes are improved when rivals build software and services that fit with its own. "This is a victory for the future of the Web," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera, the tiny Norwegian browser company that brought the case against Microsoft to the European Commission. "It is a celebration of open Web standards, as these shared guidelines are the necessary ingredients for innovation...