What’s Microsoft Gotten into Now? Search Me! - Europe to MS: "It's Not Going to Work Out"
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Why did Microsoft and the European Union fail to negotiate a settlement? We're seeing the why right here. To quote from Commissioner Mario Monti's March 18th statement about the matter, "We made substantial progress toward resolving the problems which have arisen in the past but we were unable to agree on commitments for future conduct." In short, it's the bundling behavior that's the issue -- and what do you want to bet that Microsoft's all set to bundle its search technology into its Longhorn release of Windows?
In a way, this might not be an entirely bad thing. A search engine on your desktop that, for example, searches both your computer and the Internet for information simultaneously -- provided it could filter things properly -- could be very useful. Ironically, it would bring us closer to Microsoft rival Sun's slogan that "The network is the computer!" Of course, if this is how Microsoft does it, it's easy to see where that would land companies like Google and other Internet search firms. Who'd go online to launch a search if they can use a search engine on their desktop to search everywhere? (And don't we all wish that could work in meatspace?)
So, will Microsoft get away with it when it happens? Possibly. Even if some company brings charges against them for it, and they're found guilty (as they were in the case of browser-bundling), the appeals can drag out forever, killing the competition in just a matter of time. Additionally, in this hypothetical antitrust case, Microsoft might not be found guilty; a search function isn't like a browser or a multimedia player, which is more clearly middleware. Searching is searching, whether you do it on your hard drive, online, or through the three-dimensional clutter in your three-dimensional office. I really hope I'm wrong about this; I'd hate to see Google disappear, and of course a lot will depend on what, exactly, Microsoft manages to come up with. But it might yet win this round.
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