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Microsoft Changing Users' Default Search Engine

Posted by timothy on from the now-what-did-we-say-about-playground-behavior? dept.

BabyDuckHat writes "Cnet's Dennis O'Reilly caught 'Windows Search Helper' trying to change his default Firefox search from Google to Bing. This isn't the first time the software company has been caught quietly changing user's preferences to benefit its own products."

4 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Google does it too by LotsOfPhil · · Score: 5, Informative

    Picasa defaults to change your IE search to Google.

    --
    This post climbed Mt. Washington.
  2. Re:Surprise surprise... by lostmongoose · · Score: 5, Informative

    Indeed, also making itunes an optout insted of optin when doing quicktime updates on a windows machine that has no itunes installed.

  3. Re:Once more with feeling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you actualy read the article, he admits he doesnt know what was trying to change the default search provider, or what it was being set to. All he knows is his google toolbar said a change was being made.

    Any atribution of this action to Microsoft, or that the provider was being set to Bing are suppositions - there is no evidence of that provided.

  4. Re:Once more with feeling by fullgandoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Still better that Safari on Mac which doesn't allow anything but Google as the search engine.