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Google Says Vista Search Changes Not Enough

akkarin writes "Following Google's complaint to Microsoft regarding Vista's 'desktop search,' Google claims that Vista's search has not changed enough: 'Google said yesterday that the remedies don't go far enough. Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a statement, "We are pleased that as a result of Google's request that the consent decree be enforced, the Department of Justice and state attorneys general have required Microsoft to make changes to Vista."'"

16 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. not component based? by flukus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it really that hard to make an open api with replaceable components. That way google could just plug in their search and have it open to the whole os. MS still seems to be stuck in the monolithic, tightly coupled programming era.

    1. Re:not component based? by EraserMouseMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No. Google is stuck in the, "We can force MS to ask their users to install our software in place of theirs because MS is still percieved as a monopoly" mode. Let's see Adobe publish open APIs for their entire Creative Suite. Let's see the Mac OS publish open APIs for their entire OS.

      The idea that Google is still an underdog to MS is pure fantasy. But Google's gonna milk the perception for all it's worth.

    2. Re:not component based? by dabraun · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And FWIW, Mac OS X has an extensible public API for File Search.


      Apple's API lets you USE their search feature programatically, not replace it. I think you missed the point.
  2. Come on... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Look, Google, release your own OS already, and shut up. We know you've been working on one.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  3. God damn it. by sid0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    you can't turn it off

    YOU CAN.

    I quickly discovered that searching it automatically called up MSIE

    I have no idea why that happens. I don't have GDS (no need for it), but I tried to set Firefox as the default and EVERYTHING passed to Firefox. Search results from the Start menu, URLs in emails, HTML files, EVERYTHING. The problems actually does seem to be GDS.

  4. Re:huh by laffer1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't understand why this was moderated flamebait. I suppose it could have been worded differently, but there is a valid point. Some people loved Microsoft in the late 80s and early 90s. Microsoft provided the software that was an alternative to Mac OS. People who hated Apple loved it.

    Microsoft agreed to make changes. Why push it further? I don't like Microsoft's business practices, but I don't see how google is all that much better as of late.

  5. crybaby? by dwater · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has this tagging thing been opened up again?
    For a while there, the tags almost meant something.

    --
    Max.
  6. Re:They have a problem with this *now*? by tapo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Supposedly Google suddenly started complaining about Vista's integrated search four days after Microsoft complained to the FTC about Google's acquisition of Doubleclick. It seems to be a "Oh yeah? Well fuck you!" move.

    --
    "Joy is contagious," he said, peering into the microscope.
  7. Re:huh by rwven · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While I agree with your sentiment, I do have a problem with grown-up software companies walking around acting whiny spoiled children. As much as Microsoft may deserve a "jab in the heart" on some level, Google needs to get over their emotion driven "issues" and move on to more, truly important, things.

  8. Re:huh by bl8n8r · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > "Do no evil unless it gives us money."

    I think you're jumping the gun here. Microsoft is like a fool with a rope; Give 'em enough, and next thing you know they want to be Cowboy Neal. Microsoft has enough money to buy just about any legal outcome they want - and don't fool yourself, they do. Google knows this and is nipping the problem in the bud right now. If they don't, before you know it, you won't even be able to use Google with Vista. Clippy will pop up and direct you to Vista Search instead (or some other such idiotic nonsense that the population seems to lap up). Being that Baldy is going to "Fucking kill Google"* I would be handling this with a wary eye as well. Google is playing it smart.

    [*] - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chuc king/

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  9. jeez by VariableGHz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google had argued that it should be possible to disable Vista's search entirely

    I get that Google's peeved and everything -- but since when did it become improper for an OS to index the harddrive? Why should Microsoft allow that to be disabled?! What, then, if GDS is uninstalled later on and Vista search doesn't start back up, for example? It just seems like a basic thing that should be part of an OS.

  10. Re:This is why Microsoft's OSes suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not taking sides in the OS wars ? Damn, Cyrus, but there's something MUCH more disturbing in your post:
      "If there's anything worse than a company bullying someone, it's the government bullying someone, regardless of who they are."

    I'm stunned ... "the government", my dear boy is YOUR PRIMARY REPRESENTATIVE to curtail the psychopathic behaviour of megacorporations that without law (implemented by government) and justice (implemented by government) and effective policing and watchdogging (implemented by government) would fuck over you and your grandma in a blink of an eye.

    You seem to have a problem with pronouns too. "who" does not apply to a company, it applies to PEOPLE.

    My own retort: If there's anything worse than a company bullying someone, it's an ignorant prat astroturfing for corporate personhood at the expense of the rest of us.

    Me, I'm happy when the government jumps all over the criminal, monopolistic, anti-competitive (and therefore anti-democratic) fukkers who are subsidised by our tax dollars to build infrastructure and empires so they can overcharge us and funnel our ever-shrinking disposable income toward the moneyed elite.
     
    Maybe I had too much coffee this morning ...

  11. Am I missing something? by kazade84 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Everyone is saying Google is in the wrong here, but I can't see how. Google isn't saying Vista shouldn't include a search engine, it's saying it should be possible to replace it with a competing search engine. At the moment (if I read this right, I dunno for sure I dont have Vista) you can install Google's Desktop search, but Vistas search will continue to index thus slowing the computer down. To any non-tech-savy user this is going to look like Google's software is at fault, but the system is actually doing twice as much.

    Google is right to kick up a fuss about this, coz M$ has pretty much (indirectly) stopped people using Google software by using their OS monopoly.

  12. Re:A little more specific by soapthgr8 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It also has to do with the fact that the update software was an ActiveX control which most other browsers don't touch with a 10-ft (~3.05m) pole. The functionality that allows the Microsoft Update website to search the computer for software is the source of the vulnerabilities that these browsers are avoiding.

  13. Not about desktop search by Rob+Y. · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not sure Google cares that much about desktop search per se. They probably think they can do a better job of it than Microsoft, but assuming Vista provided equal access to the desktop search database, I don't thing Google would care that much.

    The real point, and where Vista *is* anticompetitive is that the built-in search wants to integrate Microsoft's version of Internet search into the built-in desktop search viewer. Internet search is not a feature of the OS - or any desktop OS I know of, and there's no reason Microsoft should be able to use their desktop monopoly to make it look like their internet search is built-in while other engines are added on. In the light of past anticompetitive behavior and agreements, that's not legal.

    It appears that the hooks between desktop search and an internet search engine *have* been built into Vista, and there's no good reason other than the anticompetitive one for the relevant API's to be limited to Microsoft.

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  14. Re:Google's business is targeted ads, not search by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Where are those ads you speak of? Oh that's right, next to the search results!

    You are mistaken, extremely so. When you are browsing various websites the ads that you see are targeted, not everyone is getting the same ad. Basically the website pays Google to tell the website which banner ad to show you. And of course Google uses the website's query to keep track of your browsing habits and further develop their profile. You do not need to search to be profiled. And of course, Google is not alone in this business, and *that* is what all this fighting is about, *not* about who gets to fulfill your search.