Microsoft concedes but Vista desktop search remains switched on

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 22:43

Opinion and Analysis

Faced with another antitrust action, Microsoft has agreed to open up Vista to allow other desktop search providers easier access to the operating system. However, one can understand Google's sentiments when it claims that the Microsoft concessions are a step in the right direction but do not go far enough.

The fact is Microsoft still won't allow its desktop search to be completely switched off. There will be links and a place on the Start Menu for Google and other desktop search tools but the Microsoft tool will remain firmly and uselessly in place, sucking away valuable computing resources.

Therefore if you put Google Desktop Search up, under the current "concessions" made by Microsoft, the system's performance will suffer because you have two search indexing engines running. And if you happen to be using Microsoft's new operating system, the one thing you simply can't afford to suffer is performance. As most of us well know by now, Vista is a memory hog.

To put in the words of one of our resident Linux gurus, who has just finished testing Vista for a review he's writing: "My goodness, how much memory does this thing need!?"

The point is that the folks at Microsoft know all this of course and they're betting that you and the hardware vendors won't risk going with Google Desktop
Search because you would rather have your system running as fast as possible. With all the money you've spent to say "wow", you don't want your system to run like a dog.

One has to ask how, after all that has gone before, after all the promising innovative software companies that have been crushed by Microsoft's monopoly, after all the attempted antitrust actions over Microsoft's software bundling, that this has come to pass. How has Microsoft been able to get away with bundling desktop search with Vista?

One also has to ask why the foremost antitrust officer in the US Department of Justice sent a memo to state prosecutors last month urging them to reject the Google antitrust complaint against Vista.

We may never get satisfactory answers to these questions while the Microsoft monopoly endures. However, it will be interesting to see how Google's complaint fares in the EU, where legislators are much less tolerant of dominant market players from the US. If Google succeeds in getting Microsoft to switch off its desktop search completely in Europe, it's doubtful if it will let sleeping dogs lay in the US.