6 ms·

Firefox: browser ballot glitch cost us 9m downloads

57 points by neya 14y ago

abhimishra 14y ago
The article's headline is inaccurate. From Harvey Anderson's blog post (http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/windows-eu-ballot-screen-technical-glitch/ http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/windows-eu-ballot-s...): "Cumulatively 6 to 9 million Firefox browser downloads were lost during this period."
- freehunter 14y ago
  The graph on lockshot shows 8.7m. I assume the author of the pcpro article just rounded up. I'm not saying the author should have rounded up, because she shouldn't have. Journalists should strive for accuracy in paraphrasing the words of their subject. I wouldn't necessarily call it inaccurate though, since it falls within what Harvey estimates as well. I'd rather call it slightly overzealous reporting.
  - shardling 14y ago
    Rounding from 8.7 to 9 is perfectly acceptable, especially with something that's an estimate to begin with.
- Navarr 14y ago
  I like how everything here is using the word "lost." Well, they weren't gained, but they certainly weren't lost. I somehow doubt that people decided against downloading Firefox because it wasn't in the browser ballot.
  - shardling 14y ago
    > I somehow doubt that people decided against downloading Firefox because it wasn't in the browser ballot. Did you read the article? >Daily downloads of Firefox fell by 63% to a low of 20,000 before the ballot was reinstated, Harvey Anderson, vice president of business affairs and general counsel at Mozilla, said in a post on his personal blog. >After the fix, downloads jumped by 150% to 50,000 a day, he said - estimating that between six and nine million downloads were "lost" during the 18 months the browser ballot was missing.
powertower 14y ago
Why does that graph show world-wide downloads? Shouldn't it instead show EU downloads only to give an accurate account of the effects of the glitch?
Argorak 14y ago
I am quite surprised that this "glitch" ever happened. I am usually no friend of conspiracy theories, but I find the following coincidence a bit tasty: * Microsoft is known for its obsession with rigorous testing. * They had to pay around a billion for anticompetitive behaviour _and_ implement the "browser ballot". Failure to comply would cost them up to 10% of the annual turnover. * There was a "glitch" that deactivated the ballot for 15 (!) months for a full service pack.
- Rastafarian 14y ago
  I'm observing quite a few serious regressions in another Microsoft product - Visual Studio 2012, so IMHO this is not completely unlikely to be an accident. On the other side - Steve Ballmer ...
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - teh_klev 14y ago
    Would you care to elaborate on the "serious regressions" you perceive to have happened?
    - powertower 14y ago
      Chances are he is referring to the VS.NET 2012 uppercase menu letters. That specific "regression" is a greatly debated topic here, with emotions running hot. 100+ comment threads were started over that one.
      - Rastafarian 14y ago
        The menu letters case is just a registry setting. There are many shortcuts not working properly, e.g. http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/767442/vs11-control-alt-l-shortcut-does-not-scroll-solution-explorer-to-the-selected-document http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/7... , windows with strange state management, the new temp document not working properly.
Karunamon 14y ago
It took 15 months for this to come to light? A more cynical person might say this proves the silliness of the whole "browser ballot" concept.
freakyterrorist 14y ago
I can't help but question whether some of the higher download volume in 2012 was due to the new rapid release cycle rather than the browser ballot being implemented.
DigitalSea 14y ago
Fair enough this will no doubt prove to be a costly mistake for Microsoft, but I seriously doubt the drop in Firefox downloads is due to Microsoft not implementing the browser ballot and most likely due to the fact that Chrome is a better browser and Firefox were slow to address plugin memory leak issues (which they only just recently fixed).
- DigitalSea 14y ago
  Why the downvotes?

57 points by neya 14y ago

The article's headline is inaccurate. From Harvey Anderson's blog post (http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/windows-eu-ballot-screen-technical-glitch/ http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/windows-eu-ballot-s...): "Cumulatively 6 to 9 million Firefox browser downloads were lost during this period."

freehunter 14y ago
The graph on lockshot shows 8.7m. I assume the author of the pcpro article just rounded up. I'm not saying the author should have rounded up, because she shouldn't have. Journalists should strive for accuracy in paraphrasing the words of their subject. I wouldn't necessarily call it inaccurate though, since it falls within what Harvey estimates as well. I'd rather call it slightly overzealous reporting.
- shardling 14y ago
  Rounding from 8.7 to 9 is perfectly acceptable, especially with something that's an estimate to begin with.
Navarr 14y ago
I like how everything here is using the word "lost." Well, they weren't gained, but they certainly weren't lost. I somehow doubt that people decided against downloading Firefox because it wasn't in the browser ballot.
- shardling 14y ago
  > I somehow doubt that people decided against downloading Firefox because it wasn't in the browser ballot. Did you read the article? >Daily downloads of Firefox fell by 63% to a low of 20,000 before the ballot was reinstated, Harvey Anderson, vice president of business affairs and general counsel at Mozilla, said in a post on his personal blog. >After the fix, downloads jumped by 150% to 50,000 a day, he said - estimating that between six and nine million downloads were "lost" during the 18 months the browser ballot was missing.

powertower 14y ago

Why does that graph show world-wide downloads? Shouldn't it instead show EU downloads only to give an accurate account of the effects of the glitch?

Argorak 14y ago

I am quite surprised that this "glitch" ever happened. I am usually no friend of conspiracy theories, but I find the following coincidence a bit tasty: * Microsoft is known for its obsession with rigorous testing. * They had to pay around a billion for anticompetitive behaviour _and_ implement the "browser ballot". Failure to comply would cost them up to 10% of the annual turnover. * There was a "glitch" that deactivated the ballot for 15 (!) months for a full service pack.

Rastafarian 14y ago
I'm observing quite a few serious regressions in another Microsoft product - Visual Studio 2012, so IMHO this is not completely unlikely to be an accident. On the other side - Steve Ballmer ...
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- teh_klev 14y ago
  Would you care to elaborate on the "serious regressions" you perceive to have happened?
  - powertower 14y ago
    Chances are he is referring to the VS.NET 2012 uppercase menu letters. That specific "regression" is a greatly debated topic here, with emotions running hot. 100+ comment threads were started over that one.
    - Rastafarian 14y ago
      The menu letters case is just a registry setting. There are many shortcuts not working properly, e.g. http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/767442/vs11-control-alt-l-shortcut-does-not-scroll-solution-explorer-to-the-selected-document http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/7... , windows with strange state management, the new temp document not working properly.

Karunamon 14y ago

It took 15 months for this to come to light? A more cynical person might say this proves the silliness of the whole "browser ballot" concept.

freakyterrorist 14y ago

I can't help but question whether some of the higher download volume in 2012 was due to the new rapid release cycle rather than the browser ballot being implemented.

DigitalSea 14y ago

Fair enough this will no doubt prove to be a costly mistake for Microsoft, but I seriously doubt the drop in Firefox downloads is due to Microsoft not implementing the browser ballot and most likely due to the fact that Chrome is a better browser and Firefox were slow to address plugin memory leak issues (which they only just recently fixed).

DigitalSea 14y ago
Why the downvotes?