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Microsoft To Change Desktop Search After Google Complaint

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the we-didn't-mean-it-honest dept.

Raver32 writes to tell us that Microsoft will be making changes to their desktop search tool in Vista after a 49-page antitrust complaint was filed by Google. "Microsoft initially dismissed the allegations, saying regulators had reviewed the program before Vista launched. However, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in an interview last week that the company was willing to make changes if necessary."

5 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Sadly this so far means nothing... by RobertM1968 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Contrary to the title of the article...

    Microsoft To Change Desktop Search After Google Complaint

    ...MS hasnt agreed to do anything...

    However, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in an interview last week that the company was willing to make changes if necessary.

    (Micorsoft,) Please define "if necessary"... is it:

    • If Google continues their anti-trust case?
    • If enough end-users complain
    • If they are forced to because of the results of the anti-trust case
    • If BillG feels "charitable" towards his competition

    Until such a definition is announced by MS, this statement doesnt mean much of anything - except perhaps as an attempt to make the general public think they are addressing the issue of choice on the public's behalf (as most of the general public will probably read into their statement in the same way that happened when the article title was created).

    Just my thoughts on the matter...

    -Robert

    --
    StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
  2. Re:Wow! by HellFeuer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    well do you really expect anyone to integrate a third party search into their OS?
    why dont people sue apple for Spotlight?

  3. Re:Sheep by yorugua · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no law prohibiting a monopoly.
    There are laws prohibiting from abusing a monopoly. I guess that's the case here.
  4. Re:Let me guess... by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Desktop search is not new, yet Microsoft did not allow for a preferred search facility which disabled their builtin search.

    Any application installer can disable the builtin search. This was discussed extensively previously - "GDS has noted that Indexing Service is on, and this will hamper performance. Would you like to disable?" Seems pretty straightforward. After all, the hooks to disable Indexing Service are publicly available and work.

    Or should the WDS facility seek out other Desktop Search apps and disable itself if it finds something running? No. If you mean "Search" on the Start Menu, that's fairly encroaching. What next? Should the entirety of the OS be extensible? (Well, it should, but you know what I mean) Should there be an integral API allowing anyone to hook anything into anything? Filesystem? Maybe a competitor could release a new kernel for Vista, should that be allowed to hook into the UI?

    They must all competitors to compete.

    Show me how GDS is prevented from running? Oh, it's impeded from running at full performance? Guess what, so is Indexing Service. GDS is a user's choice to install? Guess what, the user can also uninstall Indexing Service. That Google have chosen to seek (questionable) legal redress for what is clearly a simple issue to resolve (and one that DEFINITELY would have come up in any usability testing) speaks volumes.

    To me, it only looks like it's forcing Microsoft to obey anti-trust laws and provide a means for competitors to play in the desktop search market instead of harming others by making it look like the competitors software is massively slowing down the OS by having two indexing systems.

    FUD. For one, it doesn't slow down the OS per se. It slows down the indexing system of two separate applications. GDS and Indexing Service. MS isn't spinning it to say "GDS is slowing down your OS, get rid of it". It's simple resourcing.

    IMO, Microsoft should be required to take Vista off the market until this is fixed. They are doing exactly what they've done for years in regards to harming competition on the Windows OS monopoly and they are currently still under sanctions from previous illegal anti-trust actions.

    Off the market? Pardon me while I cry with laughter. Harming competition? I guess you mean by putting in an unremovable, un-disable-able indexing service that slows down a competitors desktop search app. Except, what's that, oh, yes, it IS removable, by USER or by EXPOSED API. And it is disable-able, by USER or by EXPOSED API. Remind me again how you think this should be dealt with.

  5. Re:I think the problem is WHY they're doing things by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, that's not ALL we're talking about. Remember, this was an MS-made replacement for Google's desktop search and Microsoft only made it AFTER seeing Google's product, at which point they merged it into Windows at a fairly deep level.

    Rubbish. Microsoft first said Vista (Longhorn at the time) would have "Desktop Search" a year before before Google's first GD beta (and two years before Apple released Spotlight). Further, they'd been talking about the broad concept since at least the mid 90s.

    In other words, I don't really care what they put into their OS, but WHY they put it in there: to kill off competitors (Google) and their products.

    The idea that it was a "response" to Google's product (and hence some deliberate, targeted attack), doesn't even pass the laugh test.