Report: Microsoft will alter Vista to address search concerns
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Blog: Reuters reports that the software maker will change the operating system to address concerns from Google over desktop search.
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Search giant wants federal and state regulators to press Microsoft to make more changes to Windows Vista's desktop search and indexing tool.
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Now that Microsoft has officially unveiled its new Vista operating system for businesses, it is likely that corporate users will begin testing the OS over the next year to see how it fits into their environments.
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Google still hopes to influence changes that Microsoft plans to make in Vista's desktop search function.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will make changes to its desktop search program following a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Google. Google suggested in a white paper submitted to the DOJ earlier this year that Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system puts other search software companies at a disadvantage, making it difficult for users to utilize non-Microsoft desktop-search software. Microsoft has reached an agreement with the DOJ to make it easier for end users to employ desktop search programs made by rival software developers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Microsoft will also provide more documentation and information to developers about how to make those search programs run smoothly, it said. The changes will be included in Microsoft's first Vista update, called Service Pack 1, slated to be released later this year, the report said. California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Microsoft had agreed to make the "significant changes" in Vista operating system to stay in compliance with a U.S. court agreement in Microsoft's antitrust case. Brown's office intervened in the wake of reports that Microsoft's new operating system included a desktop search function called "Instant Search" that violated terms of its agreement to open its products to more competition. Google Inc. which offers the most popular search engine on the Internet, said "Instant Search" is a "Microsoft middleware product," which is subject to the federal agreement in the antitrust case. The State of California contended that Vistaâs desktop search feature is a functionality that did not exist in prior Windows operating systems and is therefore covered under the agreement. Brown said Microsoft will provide users and computer manufacturers, such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell with greater flexibility to choose and access competing desktop search products. The agreement was included in a joint status report that was filed Wednesday with federal District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., who presided over the 2002 agreement in the case. "This agreement - while not perfect - is a positive step towards greater competition in the software industry," said Brown. "It will enhance the ability of consumers to select the desktop search tool of their choice." Microsoft was found to be operating an illegal monopoly in software by another U.S. District Judge in Washington. Microsoft entered into a settlement agreement with the federal government and attorneys general for several U.S. states to abide by certain rules to allow more competition. Microsoft had originally denied that its own desktop search interfered with non-Microsoft indexing software, noting that its search indexing could be turned off, although with some difficulty. The Redmond company also seemed to have the DOJ, its former antitrust foe, on its side: Thomas O. Barnett, now the DOJ's top-ranking antitrust official, recommended in May that the DOJ and state attorneys general reject Google's complaint, according to a New York Times report earlier this month.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft will make changes to its desktop search program following a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Google.
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Microsoft Corp.  said on  Monday it expects rival Google Inc.  to file a  complaint with a federal judge arguing that changes Microsoft  has agreed to make to its Windows Vista operating system fall  short of addressing concerns that its computer search function  puts Google and other potential competitors at a disadvantage.
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Microsoft Corp. has agreed to modify its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint that its computer search function put Google Inc. and other potential rivals at a disadvantage, the Justice Department and Microsoft said on Tuesday.
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News.com reports in the article: Microsoft fixes date for desktop search tool, that the company will offer up a beta release of a desktop search by the end of this year.
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In what could be the company's only option for prolonging its complaint about Microsoft's deployment of its Windows Desktop Search component in Windows Vista, Google - which many believed had actually won a concession from Microsoft last week - has filed an amicus brief with the US district court overseeing Microsoft's compliance in its antitrust settlement with the US Justice Dept.
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Microsoft will make changes to its desktop search program following a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Google, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Microsoft revise a program that allows Windows Vista customers to upgrade from a basic version of its OS to one of the premium editions.
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Won't take 'No' for an answer A week ago, a federal judge told Google it should contact the Department of Justice with any complaints about the desktop search tools built into Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system. But Google has other ideas.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Google has complained to federal antitrust officials that the search tool in Microsoft'sÂ Windows VistaÂ Â discourages customers from using its own search utility, the company confirmed Sunday. Stories posted to the Web sites of The New York Times (registration required)Â and theÂ Seattle Post-IntelligencerÂ SaturdayÂ first revealedÂ that Google's complaint centered on Vista's built-in desktop search software, dubbed Instant Search. According to both newspapers, Google accused Microsoft of designing Vista to discourage users from running its indexing and search software. On Sunday, Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes confirmed the charge. "Microsoft's current approach with Vista desktop search violates its agreement with the government and hurts consumers." he said in an e-mail to Computerworld. "The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index." According to postings on Microsoft's support forums, the only way to completely disable Vista's search is to stop the Windows Search service in the Microsoft Management Console. Microsoft disputed Google's charges. "We've been working with state and federal antitrust officials for the past two years to ensure that there are no problems with any of the features in Windows Vista," said company spokesman Jack Evans. "These desktop search issues were reviewed at length with regulators prior to the release of Windows Vista and resulted in more than a dozen changes at their request." Even so, Microsoft will consider more changes to Vista, Evans added. "While we donât believe there are any compliance concerns with desktop search, we are committed to going the extra mile to resolve this issue, so long as the changes Google is requesting do nothing to undermine the privacy and security of computer users." During aÂ March 2007 hearingÂ conducted by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the federal judge who oversees the 2002 Microsoft consent decree, the government's status report noted that a complaint had been filed, but did not identify the company. "At the last status conference, plaintiffs reported that they had just received a middleware-related complaint," theÂ status reportÂ read. "Since then, plaintiffs have been investigating this complaint, including obtaining significant additional information from Microsoft and the complainant." Google had previously raised concerns about search in Microsoft'sÂ Internet Explorer 7Â browser with federal officials. In May 2006, however,Â federal officials rebuffed Google, saying that IE 7 users could easily switch search providers and that computer makers could set the default search engine in IE 7 before shipping systems. Google has also filed similar complaints over search in both IE 7 and Vista with the European Union's antitrust commission. Those complaints have not been settled. According to The New York Times, the U.S. Department of Justice refused to pursue the Google complaint, andÂ Thomas Barnett,Â the assistant U.S. attorney general for antitrust, sent a memo to numerous state attorneys general in May asking them to also reject the complaint. Prosecutors in several of those states, however, have reportedly decided to investigate the Google concerns whether the federal government goes along or not, a decision that has Barnett reconsidering the agency's position. E-mails and phone calls asking several of the states involved with the 2004 Microsoft settlement to comment were not returned Sunday. Barnett's division will present its next report on Microsoft's progress in meeting the 2002 settlement to Kollar-Kotelly in a hearing scheduled for June 26. Â
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Vista tops list of tech disappointments...NYT and Henry Blodget weigh in on Google's threat to Microsoft...More people are "Googling" themselves and more...
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A bizarre episode in which Microsoft announced, then rescinded, plans to change EULA restrictions on how consumers can use Vista made for a strange Tuesday for observers, and an unhappy ending for users hoping to use the OS on virtual machines.
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Microsoft Corp.  has agreed to modify its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint that its computer search function put Google Inc.  and other potential rivals at a disadvantage, the Justice Department and Microsoft said on Tuesday.