Google: Vista search changes fall short

Google on Monday said it's still not convinced that Microsoft's planned tweaks to Windows Vista go far enough to head off its antitrust concerns.

"It appears that more may need to be done to provide a truly unbiased choice of desktop search products in Vista and achieve compliance with the Final Judgment," attorneys for the search giant wrote in a seven-page amicus brief obtained by CNET News.com and filed with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

The filing arrived one day before Kollar-Kotelly, who has been overseeing Redmond's compliance with a 2002 antitrust consent decree with the Bush Administration, is scheduled to hear from government and Microsoft attorneys at their quarterly court hearing in Washington.

Last week, in a move that got the nod from federal regulators, Microsoft said in its most joint recent court filing that it had agreed to take three steps in relation to Vista's desktop search function.

First, it will add a mechanism that would allow both computer makers and individuals to choose a default desktop search program, much as they can choose a rival browser or media player. Second, it will launch that default program "whenever Windows launches a new top-level window to provide search results." And third, it will "inform" software makers, computer makers and users that "the desktop search index in Vista is designed to run in the background and cede precedence over computing resources to any other software product, including third-party desktop search products and their respective search indices."

But Google said in its Monday filing that it needs more details about those plans before it can assess whether they go far enough to assuage concerns that first surfaced last year.

For instance, "it appears that Microsoft will continue to show its own desktop search results when users run searches from prominent shortcuts and menu entries throughout the operating system, though users will now be given a mechanism to request results from their chosen desktop search product by taking a second step after they have first viewed results from Microsoft's product," Google's attorneys wrote.

Google said it was also left with the impression that Microsoft planned to remove the "Search" option altogether from the Windows Start menu and from menus that appear when one right-clicks the desktop, rather than provide a choice of search functions there.

With a portion of the consent decree related to middleware--and by extension, the search issue--scheduled to expire this November, Google's attorneys also urged the judge to consider postponing that date so that regulators can continue to keep an eye on Microsoft's implementation of the search changes. (Microsoft has said it expects the changes will be available in beta form by the end of the year as part of Service Pack 1.)

Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans dismissed the latest filing, saying his company "went the extra mile to resolve these issues in a spirit of compromise."

"The government has clearly stated that it is satisfied with the changes we're making," Evans said in an e-mail interview. "Google has provided no new information that should suggest otherwise in their filing."

Late on Monday, Microsoft filed a legal response that argued that Google shouldn't be allowed to challenge the desktop-search arrangement struck with regulators.

Stay tuned to CNET News.com for coverage of the court hearing from Washington on Tuesday.

[bobby_brady]

Balmer needs to go

I think Msft has a lot of talent, but most of it is hindered because of Balmer. If Balmer left, that would be a good change for Microsoft.

[t8]

Balmer is good for MS image

He can dance, sweat, and get real excited on stage.

Believe it or not, that takes some of the heat off their illegal practices when people can watch Balmer and laugh and say "what a funny man".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

[gmgartner]

Positioning for the Post

Microsoft has always been aggressive with regards to squashing the competition in what it sees to be the "next big thing". As pointed out in the story, Microsoft thinks that convenience search will be more important than the web based direct search. It really shouldn't be much more difficult for MS to integrate the default search provider for your desktop than is was to provide that functionality to IE7. For an article on my Vista experience see http://www.gartnerwebdev.com/2007/05/29/windows-vista-sure-looks-nice-but-wait/

[wylbur]

Google the monopolist

Google clearly is heading toward monopoly on search (based on
market stats, I know there are other search engines out there). Yet
they will not allow others to put keyword advertising on their site.
What gives, don't ad-buyers have a right to choice too? Isn't this
the same type of monopoly goog accuses msft of having here--
why don't they let msft and yhoo sell ads on goog. Open up that
search platform!

[mattumanu]

one Monopoly complaining about another...

Google complains about Microsoft, Microsoft complains about Google... Babies on the playground.

[t8]

Google doesn't abuse it's search

Google doesn't abuse it's search by placing Microsoft down the search results. In fact they give Microsoft generous placings.

Try searching on 'live' for example.

The same openess and fairness is not reciprocated on Windows is it?

Being a monopoly is OK, it's just abusing it that is illegal.

[kmomrik]

I wonder...

...if Kenwood or Panasonic ever thought of filing suit against GM or Ford or Chrysler for not making the connectors on the stock stereos compatible with their aftermarket stereos. Wouldn't that be similar? If you're happy with your crappy AC Delco radio and it does what you want, wouldn't you like it as a standard part of the car? Wouldn't this be the equivalent of Kenwood forcing GM to remove the stereo "just in case a person buyting the car would like to use Kenwood as their stereo of choice"?

[eeemang]

Pioneer is bullet proof I find

When young and poor, I had purchased the original Pioneer KP4000 in-dash AMFM cassette deck, installed it in a used Chevy for about 2 years, and then swapped it to my newer used Ford way back when cassettes were the rule. When I sold the 2nd used car (after about 4 years) I sold the Pioneer deck to another who installed it into his wife's VW. She enjoyed it for more years.
I also know Panasonic makes solid car equipment.
I had no luck in a Mustang when I installed a Sony head unit. One day it just went dead never to work again (no it was not the fuse )
You know what: the Chrysler in dash CD and the 4 CD changer have worked flawlessly for 7 years in my current car. (The car too!)

[jpsimon78]

Google is whining!

Google likes to whine and complain until they get their dang way! Microsoft didn't do anything wrong and yet they still try to gang up on Microsoft. I hope Microsoft wins this hearing, not stupid Google!!

[t8]

Google have a point

What would you say if CNET decided to make it harder for people to read your comment because it didn't agree with the story? All the while allowing theirs or their partners comments who agree with the story to by displayed by default. While yours and other similar comments needed some kind of special installation that required technical skill in turning off the default option of showing agreeing comments.

Would you not think that to be ridiculous and unfair and undemocratic?

It is easy to be thoughtless with your comments, but if you were disadvantaged yourself in the same way, I think you would be the first to complain.

There are laws for a reason. They are there to protect competition and that is done for the sake of consumers. If you don't preserve competition, then you kill innovation and that is what we saw in the browser wars for a number of years. Microsoft did no work on IE for 7 years or so because they effectively killed off the competition by bundling IE into Windows.

I am sure that you are a consumer who likes to have choice? But your comment is more about preserving a dictatorship, whether you realise it or not.

[Commander_Spock]

Slowly, Slowly Task and GOOGLE and the REDMOND...

... GIANT are about to be GOOGLED by Serenity Systems International; how so? With eComStation 2.0. Duh! (WINDOW'S BABY HALF-BROTHER that was thrown out of the window with the bath water). From all appearance the "smart" Russians (its adopted Parents) have listed "183" compatible distros ("Brand systems") that will run eComStation.

http://www.ecomstation.com/ecomstation20.phtml?url=nls/en/content/version2_rc1.html&title=eComStation%202.0%20RC1%20info

http://en.ecomstation.ru/hardware.php?action=category&section=brand

Wow, ("Sergey Brin," (of all persons) came from the Soviet Union as a young boy") should know what to expect if he has kept abreast with the news about those smart inter-collegiate students being educated in Russia which simply loves OS/2 (now called eComStation)!

[jelloburn]

And people think Mac Zealots are bad...

nt

[t8]

Commander_Spock is a talkbot

A talkbot that has survived since the says of OS/2 which is now dead. But the talkbot lives on.

[eeemang]

How to : Google as a Quick Launch

I have some free time so I wrote this tutorial:
Assumes XP or Win2K (I dont have Vista yet) ((cant be that differnet anyway))
-First activate Quick Launch by rt clicking the Task Bar and selecting that as a Toolbar option.
-Go to Google.com in IE.
-In XP or Win2K just drag the Google "e" icon from the address bar of IE browser to your left edge of the task bar.
-Then rt click the icon and select another icon to make it easy to spot.
-Then just click it to launch IE with Google as the destination whenever a search is needed.
---Dont mess with the IE search button. That was put in IE my MS to steer viewers to MSN and MSNBC and all others who are paying to hang with MS and the fluff on their site.
---Lesson: there is always a way to avoid the mass brainwashing of closed minds if only we ar eopen to new ways.

[eeemang]

PS: works with any site

This feature allows you to Quick Launch any site saved this way as an icon

(There is even a way to create folders in your Quick Launch groups and to hide the mutitude of sites AND programs in there. But you figure that out.) (It DOES NOT involve any registry work; just dragging and rt clicking)

[chuck_whealton]

Shutup Google...

You are such a bunch of cry babies it's not even funny...

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com