June 11th, 2007
Google calls Microsoft on antitrust
The antitrust complaint from Google with regards to Desktop Search on Windows Vista is “heating up” as Barry Schwartz puts it. According to Google, Microsoft has an unfair advantage over the competition when it comes to their Google Desktop product.
Google complained to federal and state prosecutors that consumers who try to use its search tool for computer hard drives on Vista were frustrated because Vista has a competing desktop search program that cannot be turned off. When the Google and Vista search programs are run simultaneously on a computer, their indexing programs slow the operating system considerably, Google contended. As a result, Google said that Vista violated Microsoft’s 2002 antitrust settlement, which prohibits Microsoft from designing operating systems that limit the choices of consumers.
According to the New York Times, the state department is backing Microsoft in this one even though the arguments, in my opinion, have a certain level of substance.
State officials told the newspaper that a memo by Thomas Barnett, an assistant attorney general, rejected the Google complaint, repeating legal arguments made by Microsoft.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
