Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 2nd May 2006 19:33 UTC
Google has made informal complaints to competition authorities in Europe and the US about default settings in Microsoft's IE7. The latest Microsoft browser includes a small window so users can search without opening up a specific page. The default setting sends users to MSN for searches - just as equivalent features in Opera and Firefox send browsers to Google. A spokesman for the search giant told the New York Times it was concerned Microsoft was limiting choice. My take: ...
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Member since:
2005-12-31
> But there is a need. A majority of people prefer to
> use Google, if we are to believe statistics. And it
> shouldn't be done with a pull down menu: in order to
> be fair, there shouldn't be a default - the user has
> to click on an icon for a search engine to continue.
By this argument there shouldn't be any defaults. If I think that the Windows kernel sucks, can I replace it? No. Do I complain? No - because it is built as a part into Windows, and such is IE and now MSN, although one still has the choice to replace them. Very much the same applies, for example, to Ubuntu/Firefox/Google.
> However, since MS is in a monopoly position, it's
> anyone's guess, really. I don't think it's worth
> suing over this particular issue, however in the
> context of another antitrust issue (should one come
> up) it could certainly be used as evidence of MS's
> continuous abuse of its monopoly position.
This is much closer to the actual issue. MS is in a monopoly position. It is too strong for competitors to establish (so far). All this are attempts to tie them to the ground again. And what I think about all these attemps is that they are silly. They get lost in technical details and endless court fightings while the core issue remains untouched: MS is a monopoly, and as long as nobody stands up to establish competition, the customer is going to lose.