Google plans to join European case against Microsoft
Google is asking to give evidence in an ongoing regulatory case which could see rival browsers installed as part of Windows. The timing has caused some to question Google’s motives for joining the dispute.
The case involves claims originally made by the Norwegian firm Opera that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows is anticompetitive. The European Union ruled in January that, in principle, it believed this claim to be correct. Microsoft has until March to dispute this, which would trigger a full hearing.
In the meantime, Microsoft noted in financial filings that the claim is fully upheld, the EU could order that European users are offered a choice of Internet browser the first time that they use Windows.
Two weeks ago Mozilla successfully applied for permission to submit documents to the case. W Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the group producing the Firefox browser, said, “the damage Microsoft has done to competition, innovation, and the pace of the Web development itself is both glaring and ongoing.”
That view wasn’t shared by Mike Connor, a key figure behind Firefox’s development, who said the 20 percent market share achieved by Firefox proved a superior product could overcome so-called monopolies.
Google has also applied to become a party to the case. If that’s accepted, it would be able to give evidence in the proceedings, gain access to many otherwise confidential documents, and even make suggestions for how Microsoft should be punished.
Writing on a company blog, Google’s Sundar Pichai points to the way Internet Explorer’s market share is much lower on mobile devices than desktop PCs and says this is evidence that Windows bundling artificially boosts the number of IE users.
However valid Google’s objections may be, it will be hard to avoid accusations that the application is simply revenge for the Microsoft complaint which arguably helped sink last year’s proposed Google-Yahoo ad deal.
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February 25th, 2009
this whole antitrust thing is stupid as fuck. i don’t see why microsoft gets shat on for providing software that lets the end user do basic shit like LISTEN TO MUSIC or WATCH DVDS or BROWSE THE INTERNET without having to fuck around on the internet finding other software to do that. i don’t see osx shipping with firefox or songbird.
February 25th, 2009
@duff,
Read the article: “The case involves claims originally made by the Norwegian firm Opera that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows is anticompetitive. The European Union ruled in January that, in principle, it believed this claim to be correct.”
So no, the antitrust case is not stupid – on the contrary, it has considerable merit. Perhaps you think that IE has 70% of the browser market because it is a superior product (if you do, I suspect that your powers of reasoning and deduction are not very well developed).
You should read up on the history of Microsoft, so that you can understand the context of current events, and hopefully make informed observations regarding same.