Deciding for ourselves: 98% of people want a browser choice screen, Mozilla study finds

Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de to Linux@lemmy.ml – 397 points –
Deciding for ourselves: 98% of people want a browser choice screen, Mozilla study finds | The Mozilla Blog
blog.mozilla.org

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/firefox@lemmy.ml/t/476611

What if we got to easily choose our web browser, and didn’t have to rely on complex operating system settings to change the pre-installed default?

Do you keep the default browser on your Linux distro, or do you change it? If yes, why?

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There is literally no way 98% of people even know what a browser is

"You know the app you use to connect to the internet? Would you like to be able to choose which app to use?"

"Cool, I'll mark you as yes, just like everyone else"

Yes, the percentage is high. Most people would be annoyed to have another selection screen in the setup process.

But I do think I saw more people using non-Google search engines since Google was forced to provide a search engine selection screen in the setup process.

my gf's mom ended up a firefox user because it had the cute fox logo, she didn't even know what it was called

To me it sounds like an idea most people would say is a good idea because people like choice on principle, but the vast majority of people will then just use Chrome anyway.

But at least they can decide for themselves, even if it's just because of the logo. The friction to switch the browser after the fact is way too high, especially on mobile nearly all people use the default browser.

If you ever see a headline that says "x% of people believe/want/feel y", it's nonsense. You can manufacture a crooked methodology to get x% of people to say anything.

"Can I have a minute of your time? There has been evidence that people who use alternative browsers are more likely to commit acts of terrorism and human trafficking. Would you be in favour of more support for alternative browsers, or would you rather have higher quality public schools?"

And just like magic, you can now write a headline that only 2% of people want a browser choice screen.