The European Union requires that Microsoft gives consumers a choice for their web browser. The browser ballot (choice screen) will present the top five web browsers in random order and allow users to download one or all of the browsers to use. Those browsers are: IE, Firefox, Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Opera. Many in the industry see this as a chance for smaller browsers to compete against the likes of Internet Explorer.
Opera Web Browser has seen it's number of downloads double directly as a result of this browser ballot. Opera reported that it's European downloads for Opera 10.50 are up an average of 130 percent as a result of the ballot.