Explorer Destroyer offers a set of scripts webmasters can install to encourage their readers to switch from MSIE to Firefox… and make some extra coin in the process.
Get this tool for switching people from IE to Firefox. For each person you switch, Google gives you $1, Microsoft loses marketshare, and an angel gets its wings.
The goal: To get your site’s traffic down to less than 50% IE users — which is a pretty lofty goal.
FWIW, browser stats for all of birdhouse.org for November (includes this blog and birdhouse classic; not sites hosted by Birdhouse Hosting). Currently at 59% MSIE, which is surprisingly close to the goal. Not sure about installing the actual script though… thinking about it. If I do, it will definitely be in “Gentle Encouragement” mode.
The outstanding question for me is, where are all these dollar bills coming from? Is Google really offering $1 to switchers? And what evidence do they have that anyone has actually switched? Had trouble digging up real information on this, save a small mention on Google’s support site: “AdSense publishers can generate earnings by referring users to Firefox – just follow these instructions, being sure to select Firefox as the product.” Slashdot story here.
Thanks mneptok
Um, Scot, Google has more dollar bills than they know what to do with… ;)
And BTW, they pay for referrals to FF with the google toolbar installed (not the google search bar that’s default in firefox, but the fancy one that is an extension normally), which I presume has to be downloaded from google’s servers…
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/19678
Sean —
Heh, I know about the billions, I guess it just seemed like such a totally audacious thing to do, and hadn’t heard about this before, so it seemed dramatic. By “who’s handing out the money” I didn’t mean “Could Google afford that?” but “Is Google really doing this?”
But I guess they are :)
It’s a lot more than “Uncle Google helping people cast off the evil Microsoft yoke”. Google’s toolbar sends back who-knows-what information to Google about the browsing habits of users. Even if it’s benign right now who’s to say the toolbar won’t update itself to something less innocent in a few months? They already mention in their patents using people’s bookmarks for rating web pages. How else would they get this data?
As bad as IE is I wouldn’t install the Googlebar version of Firefox on any machine of mine. Firefox yes, and certainly Opera, but the “do no evil” days of Google are loooong over. Consumers beware!
It all sounds very creepy to me. Speaking as somebody who has switched, many many times, to alternative browsers, but who still ends up coming back to IE because for me personally it makes life a lot easier (ditto Windows, after numerous failed experiments with Linux and Mac OS), I object strongly to any technology-facist who claims to know what’s good for me.