New Microsoft browser raises Google’s hackles
Posted on May 1st, 2006 in Usability | 5 Comments »
“With a $10 billion advertising market at stake, Google, the fast-rising Internet star, is raising objections to the way that it says Microsoft, the incumbent powerhouse of computing, is wielding control over Internet searching in its new Web browser.”
Here’s my quick sarcastic comment: Boo hoo. If Googles doesn’t like Microsoft’s browser, then perhaps they should build their own.
5 Responses
Isn’t it funny when monopolistic company attacks another for using a monopoly situation…
Defaults matter. Most people run windows, which has IE as the default browser, which has MSN as the default search. Google can’t just make their own browser — they need to get to the root of the problem, the fact that people run Windows, something that Google hasn’t touched. Or that IE is the default in Windows, something that has been taken to issue, and acted on, but to no big effect.
You have to admit, although Google may be somewhat monoplistic, they are not evil. Even in firefox and Opera, it’s a very simple affair to change the default search provider from Google (my mom may even be able to figure it out). Google is right to challenge this aspect of IE, even if it does seem like whining. It is whining, but it’s a very important issue. It’s not hypocritical either I think, google offers three map choices when you search for an address on google.com. Should we just let monopolisic tendencies like MS’s defaults continue to hurt the computer industry? You’ve seen what happens when MS dominates — they don’t make another release of MSIE for 5 years. I really don’t want MS to dominate anymore. Go Google! I don’t agree with your “boo hoo”.
Although I am personally quite annoyed with many of MS’s illegal, monopolistic practices, many of which, I believe predate the DOJ’s attention and have never been addressed by the DOJ, I disagree with Google’s complaint.
Making users choose a default search service is making them answer one more question during setup or start-up. Every additinal question the user must answer is an annoyance and an impediment to usability.
So – if it’s better to provide a default than to make the user choose up-front, is it all that strange to provide your own service as the default? Is it OK for one company to force another to be more open by providing a worse product to their users?
> I really don’t want MS to dominate anymore. Go Google!
True enough, we all seen how a monopoly equals the destruction of progress. Your example with IE is good one.
But I do not want Google to dominate either. Google is already monopolising search, so why should we give them an even bigger market share?
I had to laugh when I heard a radio report about this yesterday. I wonder what Google thought Microsoft would do on the default setting, set it to Google? Leave it empty? That would really confuse the average person. I agree with John, Google can set the default when they build their own browser.
Markets have a way of equalizing themselves (well, most times), it might be a good thing for some of the search market to swing back to Microsoft at this point. Would probably help my traffic, in most cases I rank higher in MSN search for the search terms I’m interested in … ;)