Microsoft Files EU Competition Complaint Against Google

bLanark writes "In an amazing about-turn, the bully has turned into the bullied. Microsoft, having been on the receiving end of many anti-competition lawsuits, has filed a complaint with the European Commission, saying that Google is using its market dominance to prevent Microsoft from gaining market share."

Comments

pwned

[somersault]

Teeheehee. Methinks Google is actually using superior products to prevent Microsoft from gaining market share.

Bing

[mwvdlee]

How can MS claim Google prevents MS from gaining market share when Bing is using Google search results?
Without Google, Bing would have even less market share.

Re:Bing

[gstoddart]

How can MS claim Google prevents MS from gaining market share when Bing is using Google search results?
Without Google, Bing would have even less market share.

Because Microsoft figures it's up to Google to keep handing them everything Google has as a competitive advantage so Microsoft can have equal access to it. Some of the stuff is utterly absurd:

Specifically, the complaint charges that Google hurts competition by "walling off" content on its YouTube site, so other search engines can't display accurate results; by making it difficult for Microsoft's mobile phone software to show videos from YouTube; by blocking access to content owned by book publishers which Google has copied and stored; by not allowing advertisers to use their own data about customers garnered from Google on other sites, such as those owned by Microsoft; by blocking websites from using competing "search boxes"; and by making it expensive for potential competitors to Google to advertise online.

So, First, Google are mean because they have a popular site and haven't made it easy for competitors to use that content (YouTube).

Next, either Microsoft failed to implement something that worked with YouTube, or YouTube is actively trying to make it tough for a Windows Phone to display stuff. Let me guess, the phone only supports WMV files? ;-)

Not giving access to data owned by someone else -- I mean, wow, how dare you not let us access someone else's stuff because that gives you an advantage. Seriously? If this data is owned by book publishers, why does Google have to make it available to Microsoft?

My personal favorite .... I believe that they're whining about the terms of service for the data. So, they want Google to collect it, and then let Microsoft combine that with other data they have, and then use it on their own web sites so they can compete with Google. WTF does Google gain by collecting data for its competitors?

I'm not sure I follow the last one about competing search boxes. I mean, if you're using Google ads, I can see they want you to be using a Google search ... they don't want to sell you advertising clicks, and then have any searches you do get sent somewhere else. Just because Microsoft was forced to allow different search engines and browsers from within their OS doesn't mean that I want to see every web site allowing me to pick the search engine to use.

I don't see this as any legitimate complaint about antitrust behavior. Microsoft has lost the ability to compete in some areas, and they mostly seem to be whining that someone should force Google to make the same data available to Microsoft, which makes no sense.

This reminds me of "energy retailers" we have here ... some genius decided that the power company was a monopoly, and opened it up for a bunch of little companies to essentially re-sell the same stuff as the power company and called it competition. All it really did was to create a bunch of shady companies whose only goal is to convince you to "switch" energy companies and sign up with them for a contract duration. They show up at your door saying they're the "energy company" and try to get you to sign on the dotted line at "locked in rates". (I had to throw one out of my house because he lied to my wife and said he was from our energy company, and we needed to replace the piping for our furnace and get a new hot-water heater.)

There's no actual new competition, and in many ways the consumer is actually harmed by this because the companies can be a bit dubious. But, we get the illusion of a somewhat open market, which makes certain people happy. I fail to understand why letting the parasites sell the product of another company under the guise of "competition" does anything other than create middle-men since these companies don't do anything related to power except to re-sell it.

Re:Bing

[Daengbo]

What about Google's test where they created false search results for random strings of words, then saw the same first results come up in Bing? There's no algorithm there.

Re:Bing

[miffo.swe]

The results was EXACTLY the same, not similar. The fact that they pertained made up search terms that would never had been indexed by either Google or Bing normally cemented the fact that it was wholesale stolen results directly from Google Search.

So they said ...

[unity100]

"We tried everything, we pushed our search with our browser, we pushed our browser with our os (which you foiled btw - ballot box), we tried sniffing the best result from google for a query from the users of our browser, but we still failed. Please help us"

is it ....

Re:Almost makes you want to feel pity for Microsof

[KiloByte]

Except here it's a case of Hitler complaining about annexations and racial discrimination.

Re:Boot, other foot

[mangu]

How ironical, TFA says "making it difficult for Microsoft's mobile phone software to show videos from YouTube".

This coming from the company who grew up on "embrace and extend" practices. Today the only reason why I have dual boot is because some websites that I must access will not work on any Linux browser.

Remind me again

[Posting=!Working]

Which of Google's products don't have dozens of competitors right now?

Which of those products has a barrier to entry beyond writing and putting it on the web?

Which competitors have Google actively shut down? (This does not include being better or more popular.)

Did everyone forget that Yahoo was #1 in search not too long ago? That Google took the #1 spot with no advertising? That another company is free to do so if they can come up with a better product?

Google fails every test for a monopoly. I have no idea why people are continually calling for anti-trust investigations other than jealousy.

Re:So is this MS's Chief of Strategy Craig Mundie'

[DoofusOfDeath]

new plan? Don't worry about tablets - we will just cry to governments that we are getting our lunch eaten?

Hey, worked for General Motors.

Re:So is this MS's Chief of Strategy Craig Mundie'

[marcosdumay]

That said, GM did well to not worry about tablets.