jaded

I thought about this before, but never got an answer. Today the question just popped up again while I was trying things in different browsers. Users might care, for different browsers provide different features/benefits, etc, (of course, some people just don\'t like MS products), but why would companies care which browsers people are using, which are most popular? After all, they are all giving them away for free, so why would they care? Because some day they might start charging for them so it is a potential revenue source? Or are they bringing other revenues that are not obvious to me? Starting homepages shouldn\'t matter much for they can be easily reset. I am out of ideas. Welcome any enlightenment.

Halx

Because if a company can get it's name at the top of every single window you open on your computer, it's worth a lot more than you might expect.

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WillyPete

It's also an endorsement for other product technology made by them.

If firefox works well for you, you might consider Mozilla and others for mail. Then MS loses an outlook paying customer.

If IE numbers are higher, some popular web sites may cater to IE's less standardised code features that won't work in firefox, forcing more people to use IE and other MS products to visit and enjoy thier favourite sites.

Averett

That's business. Microsoft wants to know why poeple are turning to Firefox/Mozilla/Whatever. They want to know what they like about the product, and what they don't like. And then they'll turn around and apply what they've learned with their own products.

And vice versa.

Or they should apply it - if they were smart.

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animosity

As a self proclaimed artist I could see why they would want people to use their product. It is a great feeling of satisfaction to know that people enjoy what you have created. Other than that, I am sure they are making money off it in some way.

*edit* take hal for instance... Why does he do this? We all know he goes in the hole keeping this site up. I am sure he does it for the satisfaction of making so many people happy.

flat5

also for programming reasons. They don't behave the same way. They should but don't.

Cervantes

For the user the best product is important. For the companies, creating the best product is important. The number of users (although MS stratergy leaves room for discussion) tells the companies what product is best.
Built into the human nature and transferd into the buissiness world is the urge to compete, everyone want's to be the best.

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SecretMethod70

This is the closest description of why people work on browsers such as Firefox. As for IE and opera, the more business-like descriptions are more accurate.

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"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Stiltzkin

This is true. Somewhere in my psychology book, and I know this bit of research has been published in many other places, it says that consumers are more likely to purchase a product from a brand they recognize, because they saw it on the TV or some other adveritsement, than any other brand, for that reason alone. Things that are familiar are less threatening/frightening, even if they are inherently of lesser quality.

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FloydianOne

Ive always wondered how mozilla makes money... I dont see any ads in firefox or thunderbird etc. and there are no ads on their website. How do they pay the group that programs it etc?

SecretMethod70

The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization and the programs it releases are open source, released under the Mozilla Public License. Money comes from donations, and most programmers do it because they want to, not because they want to earn money. Furthermore, anyone can help out in programming, so if I see something I don't like that needs fixing and know how to fix it, I can just program it myself and send it to them. They will then decide if my fix is good, or maybe modify it to make it better before implementing it into the program. Or perhaps they'll decide that they don't like my fix. But anyway, you get the point.

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"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

World's King

I use FireFox cause SecretMethod told me to.

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