Yahoo launches customized IE 7 beta

The lines are being drawn in the search wars, with Yahoo and Microsoft squaring off against Firefox and Google.

Yahoo has launched a customized version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2, which has Yahoo search built into the browser.

The customized browser sets Yahoo.com as the default home page on the primary tab, while Yahoo Mail automatically loads in the secondary tab. The Internet giant used Microsoft's Internet Explorer Administration Kit to customize IE 7, according to a Friday post on IEBlog.

Although Yahoo's customized browser presets the home page and search to Yahoo properties, "users can easily change the settings, just as they can with the standard version that [Microsoft] ships," according to IEBlog.

Last month, antitrust regulators investigating Windows Vista appeared satisfied with Microsoft's plans for the operating system, including IE 7's search box, which defaults to Microsoft's own MSN Search.

As part of its status report on Microsoft's antitrust compliance, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had reviewed the search box and concluded that Microsoft's implementation "respects users' and (computer makers') default choices and is easily changed."

Google last month claimed that IE 7's default to MSN was anticompetitive. The search giant has a close working relationship with the Mozilla Foundation, whose Firefox browser competes with IE 7.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London. CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this report.

[anarchyreigns]

Semel just keeps getting....

Semel just keeps getting dumber and "dumberer".

[maxwis]

Terry Smell, why Do You Fail Me?

You waste your company's resources on silly things like a customized IE (assuming your customers are dumb), yet you fail to provide real value by enhancing Yahoo Email to allow blocking of spam emails from country domains like China and South Korea.

[slaha11]

Now Google knows

Great to hear that Antitrust has said that the IE search box is not evil.

Google was shouting too much, and now should keep its mouth shut, and focus on something more than 'Beta'.