Perhaps You’d Like Us to Bundle Netscape Navigator as Well–Just for Old Time’s Sake?

With a 20 percent share of the the world-wide browser market and 31 percent of its European segment, Mozilla’s Firefox browser has clearly proven that Microsoft Internet Explorer is not immune to free-market competition.

But the natural course of the free markets is apparently not moving fast enough for the European Commission, which is mulling forcing Microsoft (MSFT) to include browsers other than IE in its Windows OS.

Seems that the idea of unbundling IE from Windows has been superceded by a push to bundle even more browsers with it. People close to the case tell The Wall Street Journal that regulators may demand a so-called ballot screen that would present PC users with an array of browser choices, and the option to designate one of them as a default. The EC believes doing so would dilute Microsoft’s advantage in the field and certainly it would do that.

Though at this point, one wonders why that’s even necessary. In April, IE’s market share in Europe was about 48 percent, down from more than 80 percent a few years ago.