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.
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.
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
Whether Apple will release a new iPad next month doesn't seem to be the question as much as what day it will happen. A new rumor has it down to the day.
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.
>>Microsoft's Internet Explorer Administration Kit to customize IE 7
It's not that tough, and didn't take that long.
IE is still by far the dominant browser, so why not take 5 minutes set yourself up to benefit from some defaults
Google was shouting too much, and now should keep its mouth shut, and focus on something more than 'Beta'.