Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
With the advent of IE 7, Google (GOOG) is fighting back with the law rather than free market tactics. What it all entails is that IE 7 has a small white search box that is in the top right corner of the browser. Google is complaining to the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission concerning the issue.
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.
A spokesman for Google, Steve Langdon said "We have spoken with the commission as part of its investigation of Vista, we have expressed our concerns that Microsoft's approach to setting search defaults in IE7 benefits Microsoft while taking away choice from users." He added that Google was not aware of a similar investigation in the U.S. but had also spoken to the Department of Justice "generally about our business and the importance of preserving competition in the search market."
Aren't we all glad about Google watching out for us? Google, which has a monopoly on the search area, is now concerned about choice for users? They are worried about 'preserving competition in the search market?' Do they think anybody believes this?
I don't see how this can do anything but backfire on Google as it's hypocritical actions already give me a bad taste concerning Google.
Microsoft has responded by saying that the users of IE7 can change the default search box to any that they want to use. Google says that mentions that it is more difficult to do than say Firefox. So when does a competitive company dictate the conditions of use for a competitor. Google can now attempt to legally force Microsoft or anyone else to change their technology because Google doesn't approve?
To me this is where Google should be fined for wasting taxpayer's dollars on frivolous nonsense. They need to come up with free market competitive responses, not go crying and whining to the governments of the world that their competitor's have come up with ways to penetrate their markets.
» Steve Ballmer hits back at Google from TheAlphaMarketer
We talked about the rediculous 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... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 12, 2006 1:45 PM | Permalink to Trackback