MS antitrust charges to give Google market share?
updated 07:00 am EDT, Mon May 11, 2009
Microsoft writes defense
Microsoft this weekend claimed Google's internet browser, Chrome, will be given more market dominance should the European Commission continue with its antitrust charges against Microsoft. The company expects Opera and Mozilla, each of which have agreements in place with Google, will default their browsers to the Google search engine. According to the FT, this claim was contained within Microsoft's written appeal to the EC.
Microsoft also claims Google could facilitate agreements directly with PC manufacturers, pushing companies to set search defaults to the Google search engine and giving the company extra market share as a result.
The Commission, which regulates competition amongst the 27-country European Union, filed charges against Microsoft in January. According to the EC, the company is hindering innovation of Internet browsers and reducing customer choice by packaging Internet Explorer with its operating system, Windows Vista. Microsoft has been packaging this since 1995. Microsoft was given two months to write a written response to the accusations, and received two extensions. The company will also be given an opportunity to defend itself at a hearing with the European Commission this June.
ah
05/11, 08:45am reply
poor babies. getting a taste of their own medicine and they don't like it so much.
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Google does search
05/11, 09:07am reply
Well, Google does search well. Better than anyone else right now (although the Wolfram engine looks promising).
Microsoft has never been about doing anything better than the competition. Microsoft is all about doing something well enough so that most people don't bother changing from the default settings.
We are witnessing a strange and new phenomenon here. People are switching their default browser settings to search with Google. This boggles my mind, and is obviously quite threatening to the kings of default in Redmond.
MatildeMatilde
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Joined: Feb 2008
nat
05/11, 11:27am reply
own medicine? What medicine are you referring to exactly? Doesn't even make sense.
luckyday
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Joined: Apr 2008
luck
05/11, 12:21pm reply
ol' boy, what's troubling you? the term "taste of their own medicine" or MS's history?
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Isn't that the point?
05/11, 12:46pm reply
Isn't that the point, to give minority products a larger market share?
resuna
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Joined: Jan 2005
good for the EU
05/11, 01:17pm reply
I think it is great having the EU around to help keep these guys (and others like them) honest. Even if Microsoft can game the DoJ (their antitrust lawsuit was settled not long after Bush took office in 2001, in a settlement that was likely far more lenient than it would have been had Gore become president), there's always the EU which is far less likely to succumb to lobbying by an American multinational and represents a market even larger than that of the US.
climacs
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Joined: Sep 2001
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
05/11, 01:23pm reply
To h*** With Microsoft! Apple & Google Forever!
LEStudios
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Joined: Jul 2008
nat
05/11, 03:22pm reply
I think my post was pretty explicit. When somebody says taste of their own medicine they mean "doing something bad to someone that they have done to you to teach them a lesson."
Are you suggesting that Microsoft prosecuted Google for antitrust charges? haha.
luckyday
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Joined: Apr 2008
uh... no
05/11, 04:45pm reply
ms had the power to dominate market share (bundling), now the eu has the power to make it an even playing field.
a taste of their own medicine. geesh.
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002