Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
The New York Times reports that Microsoft's new Internet browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors.
[money.cnn.com...]
I hope that they see the number of people using Google plummet over the next couple of years, and their earnings too.
Google is complaining and at the same time they have paid Dell a small fortune to install the google toolbar on all their pcs?
That's exactly the point: Google and other search providers have to pay for a place on the desktop or in the default Windows browser, while Microsoft doesn't.
Microsoft doesn't.
And cost of developing IE (free to end user) and actual Operating System is what, free? Last time I checked developing Vista cost many many many billions of dollars.
Google will just need to prove it is worthy of our searches, just like we have to convince google that our websites are worthy of their positions.
Microsoft and Google fighting it out can only be good for the webmaster.
Then Google should quit whining and play the OS game while microsoft is trying to play the search game. At least Google won't have to "pay" on their systems.
That's exactly the point: Google and other search providers have to pay for a place on the desktop or in the default Windows browser, while Microsoft doesn't.
From another point of view, it seems Google is prepared to do whatever is necessary so as to get exposure, so why shouldn't the others?
Microsoft use their browser to promote MSN Search, Google uses Firefox and Opera to do exactly the same thing.
Microsoft use their browser to promote MSN Search, Google uses Firefox and Opera to do exactly the same thing.
But Microsoft's browser is part of the Windows operating system, not a separate product like Opera or Foxfile.
I love it :D
I hope that they see the number of people using Google plummet over the next couple of years, and their earnings too.
Count me in...loved Google of 2002-2005. Hate the 2006 Google and it’s destructive, arrogant and monopolist power over many millions of businesses around the world. Like many many webmasters/online business owners out there I would like to see Google taste some of their own medicine.
But Microsoft's browser is part of the Windows operating system,
And how GREAT is that! i just hope Bill acts fast enough, sending Google the Netscape way.
"Do no evil/democratic PR my bu**"
[edited by: Web_speed at 5:16 pm (utc) on May 1, 2006]
But Microsoft's browser is part of the Windows operating system
A more correct way to say it would be: "But Microsoft's browser is part of the Microsoft Windows operating system".
If Ford decides to put Ford branded version of IPod clone into Ford vehicles then Apple has got nothing to complain about - they can start manufacturing vehicles if they want.
Precicely. They don't eliminate IE users from being able to use the google toolbar. They just have MSN as default option in the search bar and this option can be changed anyway - at least this is how I read it.
They don't inhibit people from using alternative browers either. People can easily download firefox with all the google goodies if they want. No biggie.
This was my point exactly:
"Then Google should quit whining and play the OS game while microsoft is trying to play the search game."
Maybe google should focus on their original game plan instead of the little search box. You can't back button out of your OS. ;)
It used to that G saw the webmaster community as the "canary in the coal mine" an early warning system, obviously they don't do that anymore, when they implode no one can say the writing wasn't on the wall.
[edited by: TypicalSurfer at 5:22 pm (utc) on May 1, 2006]
"The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services," Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search products at Google, told the Times
Thanks Marissa, I haven't laughed so much in ages
EFV-
The search is only set as default to MSN. If someone wants to install the google toolbar and use that, what is the big deal. Why are you whining for google? Geez..What do you expect microsoft to do? Set the search box for google?
I don't know how old you are, but those of us who were using computers and reading the news in 1995 remember how Microsoft tried to force PC manufacturers to show only the MSN and Internet Explorer icons on the Windows 95 desktop. Ultimately, Microsoft succumbed to antitrust pressures by allowing an "online services" folder with icons for proprietary online services other than MSN.
Some who remember that bit of history may feel that Microsoft was in the right, and that there was (and is) nothing anticompetitive about Microsoft's use of the Windows operating system to to promote other Microsoft products. But one doesn't have to be "whining for Google" to be aware of history, or to consider history in the context of Microsoft's latest efforts to leverage its monopoly or near-monopoly in PC operating systems.
Edit>reason-expand reply
As noted by a previous post, Google (or Yahoo for that matter) only need to create their own OS, get it on almost every single desktop sold in the US and Europe, create an enormous support network, bundle free software with it (like browsers and email clients), persuade almost every software manufacturer to port for the system, same for games - then they're sorted. I mean, what's the fuss? It only took Microsoft 31 years.
Anyway, why do you think Google are issuing new BETA products almost every month that are generally not part of their core market? You don't need to be psychic to work out that despite the hold Google have over search, they don't make any of the stuff people actually search on. They know more than anyone that their hold over this market was always tentative. And it won't take long for Wall Street to come to the same conclusion. Once a few high profile geeks in the Googleplex have to fall on their sword it'll fall apart pretty quickly.
A bigger problem is of course that their business model is based exclusively on advertising, unlike Microsoft. Anyone who follows the search engine market cannot seriously believe Google would withstand a concerted attack from Microsoft? This is even more the case now since so much of Google's stance is pure hype (remember China?).
Personally I'm in favor of at least 3 major search engines slugging it out, perhaps more. I don't like the idea of Microsoft dominating, but then again it's not so good that Google do at the moment. In terms of the future I can't see anyone seriously challenging Microsoft.
:)
This is one skirmish in a big business war that will go on and on. As I see it, it's mostly an attempt to get the word out a bit further that the engine used in the IE search box is changable. The more people know it can be changed, the better for Google. But expecting it not to have a default setting for MSN is pretty much blue-sky thinking.
I'm sorry EFV, who designed IE7 and Windows? Did Google shell out the tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars in R & D, or was it MSFT? MSFT paid dearly for this, and let's be fair to them; it is their product.
Why doesn't Google advertise MSN search with Google earth or G maps, after all MSN search is wayyyy behind, and Google has an advantage.
