Individual approach

From time to time, on the Runet forums, discussions are held on a topic similar to the following: did not Opera Company think too much of itself with its microscopic share of the global browser market, sometimes reproaching competitors — and in particular one well-known Redmond company — in not entirely correct methods struggle in the market? After all, such a giant as Microsoft will not pay much attention to "outsiders" who are not able to change anything in an already divided cake. Of course, at one time there were facts of frankly juggling CSS tables for Opera users accessing Microsoft’s websites, but this was the reason for the “celebration” for a long time that was explained by an absurd accident. After all, now the giant behaves quite correctly.

Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. The other day, Opera browser users found this (see illustration above) call that appears when they log on to one of the pages of the Microsoft web portal . Actually, why should the developer of the most popular browser in the world not offer users of competing software products to try their brainchild? Yes please, who is against. The whole question is how to do it: elegant, fun, creative ... Yes, there are many options. But, apparently, Microsoft marketers have only one available method, proven over the years. I think you will be able to define this method a little later.

So, let's understand. As stated in the text, browser security studies were conducted by an absolutely independent and, apparently, authoritative research team from NSS Labs. After all, it will not be a giant with a worldwide name to use data whose unknown. And really - here it is the NSS Labs website , and here is the actual results of a study conducted last year. Everything is fair. But upon closer familiarization with the report, a lot of questions arise, ranging from the research methodology to the principle of selection and analysis of the results. Howard Moen discussed in more detail all the incomprehensibilities of the report in his blog . Therefore, I will not repeat his work now - those who wish can familiarize themselves.
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I was more interested in another moment. As it turned out, depending on the browser used by the visitor, the content of the pop-up window varies. And this is how:

FireFox: “We noticed that you are using Firefox. Try the new Internet Explorer 8 right now, find out all its new features and compare with your browser. "

Chrome: “According to the latest research by independent expert NSS Labs, Internet Explorer 8 is much better than any other browser protecting its users from stealing passwords and spyware. Switch to the new Internet Explorer 8 right now, learn about new browser features and be confident that you’re safe. ”

Safari: "Try the new Internet Explorer 8 right now, find out all its new features and compare with your browser."

As you can see, the tone of statements varies from mild to completely neutral, even without mentioning the names. I do not know about you, but in my opinion the text relating to Opera is the most aggressive and tough. Why is that? The big question. On the one hand, one would assume that due to the low prevalence of Opera in the world (if we take the average indicator), the giant simply did not consider it necessary for a gentleman once again. But here is another interesting detail: just the English-speaking user will not see these pop-up windows! This pleasure is offered only to the Russian-speaking audience. But Opera’s share is quite perceptible in RuNet and even more, even without users of version 9.x, who have not yet updated to the latest stable version 10.x, this “ten” has already outperformed each of the versions of Internet Explorer - 6, 7 and 8. And given the ongoing migration of users from Opera 9.x to 10.x, as well as the imminent release of Opera 10.50, which has a significantly improved JavaScript engine, in the coming months Opera 10.50 can be predicted to take the first place in the individual standings among all browsers. Apparently, this explains the increased aggressiveness of the text offered to users of the Norwegian browser.

It is with such methods that the struggle with competitors is conducted. With all due respect to this truly legendary company, such examples make us not forget that even from the giants of the industry, you can expect, to put it mildly, unsporting behavior.