European Web Browser Ballot Screen

Browser Ballot Screen

Paul Thurrott wrote at the Windows Supersite today about a live view of the European Browser Ballot Screen and I decided to conduct a little experiment with it.

I browsed to the site (http://www.browserchoice.eu) and refreshed it 24 times to see where the various browsers were placed by this random ballot screen (24 refreshes plus the initial arrival).

Here are the results I got:

The top row represents the 5 slots in which the browsers can show up in; the left side shows each browser. The data shows the number of times they showed up in the 5 slots.

So what can be told from these very unscientific results?

• Slot 1: Distro was 8 numbers apart
• Slot 2: Distro was 3 numbers apart
• Slot 3: Distro was 5 numbers apart
• Slot 4: Distro was 4 numbers apart
• Slot 5: Distro was 5 numbers apart
• Slot 1 had the greatest variation between browsers; IE (9 appearances) and FF (1 appearance)
• Slot 2 had the closest variation between browsers; Opera/Chrome (3 appearances) and Safari (8 appearances)

All in all this test does not say anything in particular because as you know numbers can be made to say anything by anyone.

What is your interpretation of these numbers? Is it random or is there a hidden outcome here?

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Richard Hay  (3358 Posts)

Richard is the Owner of WindowsObserver.com and has been involved in tech for over 25 years. His first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then he used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and what you see here today is the result of the work he has continued on the site since 1995. In January 2010 his community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when he was awarded the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for Windows Desktop Experience. In January 2011 he was renewed as a Microsoft MVP but in a new category called Windows Expert - Consumer and in January 2012 he received the award for the third time.