What’s a Browser?

It’s pretty scary when there’s a war but nobody knows what that war is about. Well, the browser wars may not cause much death, but it’s such a buzz that you’ think people would know what it means. Actually, it’s not that people don’t know what that whole IE versus FF is, but rather that they don’t know what Internet Explorer and Firefox are.

The video below is the result of quick “research” (i.e. some Google guys asking questions in Times Square, New York) on what people thought a “browser” was. The results are scary. For those who are not courageous enough to watch it, this video basically proves that most people have no idea what a browser is, and assimilate the term to the concept of search engine.

The problem is that people are not aware of what software they are using. If they bump into limitations from using that software, they’ll think their at the edge of all possible technology and not that the particular software they are using is limited. One out of ten people is using Internet Explorer 6. They are not using it because they chose it but rather because they have no idea that Internet Explorer is a software program that can be replaced. You might argue that there’s no bad to that, but it is clear that people using IE 6 have a lower web experience than those with IE 8, FF3, etc. Of course Google is worried because their whole business is on the web: a bad web experience for 10% of the Internet’s users ultimately means 10% of users that would have a limited experience with their products.

Imagine what people would answer if they were asked what OS they used? Would they know there were alternatives? Microsoft has long taken advantage of this situation by pushing hardware brands to tie their operating system to the PCs. Practically nobody revolted against that situation because they did not have the knowledge to study the alternatives. You might say that the situation has changed because Apple is making a lot of noise, but according to the numbers I’ve seen, Firefox is much more used than Mac OS. That means that if more than 10% of users are not able to see the advantage to switching to a new browser from IE6, these same users will not even think of changing the whole OS. If 90% of users do not know what an OS is (and it’s probably harder to understand what an OS is than what a browser is), who can break the Microsoft monopoly.

On a more cheerful note, Apple’s advertisement serves the OS market as a whole as it opens consumers eyes and consequently pushes it towards more innovation. Now I’m asking myself a question: will the browser chooser option on Windows 7 (in Europe only) open people’s eyes about choice? The “ballot screen” that Microsoft will have to provide their new costomers with a new insight on browser competition, even if I don’t believe a larger share of customers will actually will care. This video just made me realize why Microsoft was fighting the EC so much.

Conclusion? I’d say computer illiteracy is good for Microsoft and any information is dangerous for their dominance. If people don’t know what a browser is, they won’t feel the need to change. The same thing goes for the OS.

If you’re not sure yourself what a web browser is, here’s a video that explains it is (very) simple terms:

You might want to check whatbrowser.org (from which this video comes from), a web site made by “some folks at Google”, that is non partisan (i.e. not pushing Google Chrome down your throat), and that’s simple to understand for non-tech-savvy users. I think I’ll send the address to my clueless friends. You should do the same.