Google doesn't like IE7's search pane... hypocrites.

More precisely, Google doesn't like that MSN is set as the default search engine when IE7 is installed.

The IE Team discusses Search

Poor Google.  The heart bleeds (not).

Granted, it must hurt that Google has lost Amazon Search to MSN, but let's get real here and have a look at some facts.

  1. Firefox, Safari and Opera all have Google set as the default search engine.  How is this different to the IE7 search pane?  Actually, the IE7 pane is fairer.  How so? Read on.
  2. The IE7 Search Pane, if it detects that IE6's autosearch default is an engine that is available to the IE7 Search Pane will keep that search engine as the default for the search pane (yes, including Google).  Do Firefox, Safari or Opera do that? Not as far as I know.
  3. IE7 offers Google Search as one of the standard search engines available in the Search Pane - no further installations required.  Firefox, Safari and Opera do not offer MSN Search as one of their standard search engines.

Google say *now* that they would not object to Firefox or Opera prompting the user to choose a default search engine, but there is only one problem with their very "magnaminous" offer.  As I pointed out above MSN is not offered as a standard search option  in Firefox, Opera or Safari (a critical point that none of the blogs I have read have spotted yet).   Google may run a risk that they may no longer be the default search engine by making this offer, but they know darned well that MSN will not be either.  Good one guys.

C'mon Google... put your money where your mouth is and get all those other Web browsers that set Google as the default search engine to also offer MSN Search.   Get all those other Web browsers to set *their* search panes to something other than Google if that is the default chosen elsewhere.  Oh, and while you're at it, give us the choice to set MSN Search as our default home page when Firefox is installed, and make sure that the MSN Toolbar is offered with Sun Java as well as the Google Toolbar (the same goes with any other application that bundles your toolbar) ... and let's see a "Get IE" logo right next to the "Get Firefox" logo on sites that push your toolbar.

I tell you this, if Google was set as default search engine in IE7, Google would not be offering to change things now .. the status quo with Firefox and Opera would continue.

The bigger Google gets, the less "good guy" they are becoming.  Google apparently already have 49% of the search market, followed by Yahoo with 22% and MSN with 11%.  Yet that is not enough - they still want MS to do as Google says, not as Google does.

Published Tue, May 2 2006 11:37 by sandi
Filed under: ,

Comments

# re: Google doesn't like IE7's search pane... hypocrites.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006 9:30 AM by gerlach
I agree with you 100%.

I have seen people trying to defend google saying it isnt easy to change it. It is VERY easy.

Great post.

# re: Google doesn't like IE7's search pane... hypocrites.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006 7:17 PM by reader
"As I pointed out above MSN is not offered as a standard search option in Firefox, Opera or Safari (a critical point that none of the blogs I have read have spotted yet)."

from Spam Daily News (March 11, 2006; update April 30, 2006):

... even a fresh install of IE7 doesn't "default" to MSN search. It uses the previous versions settings.

Meanwhile, Firefox defaults to Google. Microsofts search isn't even in the default choices. Netscape defaults to Netscape, has Google as an option and has no option to ad Microsoft's search engine (or any other engine for that matter). Camino and Safari are set on Google and can't be changed.

Anyway, IE 7 will remain just as brandable as it was in the past, so nothing is stopping Google from making deals with Dell or HP to make its search engine the default and its site the default home page on every computer they sell.

http://www.spamdailynews.com/publish/Mozilla_making_tens_of_millions_of_dollars_from_Firefox.asp

# re: Google doesn't like IE7's search pane... hypocrites.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006 7:33 PM by sandi
Thanks for the link. I sure wish that page didn't push those horrid smilies though. Keep away from them guys 'n' gals.

# Sanity prevails - Google complaints about IE7 rebuffed

Thursday, May 18, 2006 12:46 AM by Spyware Sucks
Some may recall that Google complained to the European Commission about the IE7 Search Box.
I am pleased...

# re: Google doesn't like IE7's search pane... hypocrites.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:05 PM by Mike

I like Firefox a lot, but here are a couple of clarification points.

When I launch Firfox and select the search providers in teh search box, I see a few default providers and I can add MSN.

When I launch IE7, I see NO PROVIDERS at all except for MSN. I can add Google (or anyone else).

To me, it seems that both browsers require adding the other big guy in search.

Sandi: That depends on your pre-existing settings.  If you have a provider other than MSN as default when you upgrade to IE7, then that provider will still be there, and still be default, when IE7 is installed (yes, this also means Google).

The only time there is only MSN is on a clean install system, or a system where no other search provider had been set as default.

# Dell backs down on bloatware

Saturday, June 23, 2007 7:56 AM by Spyware Sucks

A while ago my boss (a Mac aficionado) pointed out the Mac v PC bloat video as just one more piece of