Opera Sees Huge Spike In Downloads Following EU Browser Ballot Screen [Many European Users Flocking To Opera Following Addition Of Browser Ballot To Windows, Opera Pushes For Global Roll-Out]

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The Microsoft Browser Ballot, a little pop-up that informs European users that they have a choice in their browsers beyond Internet Explorer, actually may be working, as Opera is reporting a huge boost in their downloads since the browser ballot was patched into EU versions of Windows.

Following the European Union’s anti-competition case against Microsoft, one of the provisions against Microsoft (which also included over $700 million in fines and disclosure of some source code) was that they had to inform users that there was a choice beyond Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer. The so-called “browser ballot box” was patched into Windows via an update and now all European users who have IE set as their default search engine will see it.

The box shows off a total of 12 browsers, some of them lesser known. Opera isn’t exactly the most popular web browser these days, despite them being the first to come out with a lot of innovations like tabbed browsing. However, following the addition of the ballot box to Windows, they’ve seen quite a boost in their traffic and downloads.

Opera has seen traffic to their website go up 130%, with their downloads doubling, with 53% of total downloads now coming from the EU ballot box. Because of this, it’s no surprise that Opera wants Microsoft to roll out the ballot box worldwide. “Microsoft agreed to change its business practices in the face of formal charges from the Commission. Consumers deserve the same unbiased browser choice on all the world’s more than 1 billion personal computers,” Opera said in a press release.

However, Microsoft is only using the browser ballot as required by EU law, so don’t expect to see the box roll-out anywhere else. A Microsoft spokesperson told website Ars Technica, “The issues in the Internet Explorer case have already been the subject of extensive legal action in several other countries around the world, including the United States, which have each developed their own legal solutions.”

Europeans who have IE set as their default web browser can expect to see the browser ballot box until May for existing Windows installations and for another five years on new Windows purchases.