I agree, I don't think there's enough research here. If it were just one browser, perhaps designer choice. But it is two browsers that chose blue, so perhaps t

I agree, I don't think there's enough research here. If it were just one browser, perhaps designer choice. But it is two browsers that chose blue, so perhaps there is some underlying Unix-y reason. Maybe early ncurses had chosen that blue for something unrelated to the web, and the decision goes back further. Or maybe it was just lack of choices. For example, of the 16 original hex colors, blue & purple IMHO look the least like crap when mixed in with black text. Maybe its just that simple? red is too alarming, green is too bright, yellow/magenta/cyan/grey are too hard to read... now I'm speculating, but I think the answer might be an unrelated pattern in some other color-related origin.