Microsoft caves in to Google on Vista search

Posted on 20 Jun 2007 at 10:34

Microsoft has agreed to make it easier to change Vista's default search engine following a complaint from rival Google.

The search giant had protested that Microsoft was abusing its desktop monopoly by making its own Windows Live the default desktop search engine.

Microsoft will now build into Vista an option to let users select a default desktop search program on personal computers running Windows, under an agreement with the US Justice Department department and 17 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia.

The agreement was made public as part of a joint report that the Justice Department and Microsoft, with the court overseeing Microsoft's compliance with a 2002 antitrust consent decree.

The company has also pledged to place links inside the Internet Explorer window and the "Start" navigation menu to make it easier for people to access that default desktop search service.

The changes will be introduced in a service pack or updated version of Windows Vista software. Microsoft said it anticipates a test version of the Vista Service Pack 1 to be ready by the end of the year.

Under the agreement, Microsoft also promised to provide additional technical information to third-party developers, such as Google, in order to optimise the performance of their desktop search service on Vista.

"These remedies are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, 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," Drummond said.

Microsoft had called Google's complaint "baseless" and said it was in compliance with the antitrust settlement.

The Department of Justice statement is online at usdoj.gov/atr.

Author: Reuters and Simon Aughton