Who's afraid of IE7?

Michael Gartenberg | May 01, 2006, 11:04 AM

Perhaps Google? At least according to this story from the NY Times.

"The new browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors. The move, Google claims, limits consumer choice and is reminiscent of the tactics that got Microsoft into antitrust trouble in the late 1990's. The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services," said Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search products at Google. "We don't think it's right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose."

This reminds me a lot of the Netscape complaints in the 90's. Didn't help Netscape very much back then and actually made them look quite weak. Of course, the world is a very different place. What is interesting is that in the earlier beta of Ie 7 (I haven't installed the latest build) going to Google brougt up a screen that offered to change the default settings of IE from MSN to Google. I do tihnk ther'e a home court advantage for MSFT and that Google's efforts to co-opt IE and the Windows desktop are going to get harder over time. More interesting is what's worrying Google, is it that Microsoft's search has crossed the line to be "good enough" or that there's going to be mass adoption of IE 7 and Vista (or both)?

Dean Hachamovitch responds to the issue. "The user is in control of the search box. If users want to change what IE7 or the OEM set the search engine to initially, they have several ways to do it."