May 12, 2006
We talked about the ridiculous complaint by Google (GOOG) recently concerning their attempt to paint the new Microsoft IE 7 browser as an attempt at a monopoly.
As I said in another post recently:
"The bizarre complaint is odd when you think that Google has its own search tool embedded into Microsoft's (MSFT) browser competitors Firefox and Opera."
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hit back at them by saying "Google wants us to prompt the users to change the defaults. They want to see a list of search providers, with the No. 1 search provider listed first," said Ballmer."
IE 7 offers a list of search sites that can become a user's default search engine. The list is alphabetical, so Google is listed after some (such as Ask.com) but before others, including MSN.com. IE 7 also doesn't actively suggest to a user that they can change their default based on their recent search histories or other behavior.
This makes sense to me that as the ability to choose whichever browser you want is offered. To complain because the list isn't in order of the most used browser but rather in alphabetical order is really childish. This is just the old technique when a company can't figure out how to respond they do the old 'lets go to the law' route as their response.
As Andy Beal says:
"I don't see Google winning this fight. Microsoft has been defending "monopoly" accusations for years and are very adept at making their point. On the other hand, this is virgin territory for Google, who also faces some allegations of hypocrisy for promoting Firefox. What is it they say about people in glass houses?"
comments
Web searches using your favorite search provider
can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar,
eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars.
You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown
list or add more providers.
Here's a list of Search Providers for IE 7.
http://ieproviders.com/
Posted by: Anonymous | May 18, 2006 09:25 PM | Permalink to Comment