Google Inc. said Monday that it wanted Microsoft Corp. to keep open users' choice of Internet search engines in future products — but it refused to say if changes Microsoft has already made to operating system Vista have gone far enough.
"It's been our view that any new version of Microsoft products that include search, that that be done in a way that preserves user choice for search and other applications," said David C. Drummond, Google's senior vice president of corporate development.
He said the company would monitor the situation but it was "too early to tell" if there were would be any potential antitrust problems with Vista.
He spoke to reporters after meeting with EU antitrust regulators but refused to give details on those talks, beyond saying there had been no particular agenda.
Earlier this month, Microsoft said it had changed Vista in several key sectors — including its search service — in an attempt to soothe European antitrust worries.
Vista is Microsoft's first major update to the company's flagship operating system since Windows XP was released in late 2001.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes wrote to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in March, pointing out possible issues with Vista's integrated Internet search, digital rights management tools used to protect copyrights and software that would create fixed-document formats comparable to Adobe Systems Inc.'s Portable Document Format, or PDF.
Regulators said they were concerned that computer manufacturers or consumers might be prevented from having a proper choice between different software packages.
Security vendors Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. also complained publicly that Microsoft had been slow to hand over technical details to help them make software that would work smoothly with Visa.
There is no formal investigation into Vista but Microsoft is still embroiled in a long-running legal challenge to the EU's 2004 antitrust order that found it broke competition law and fined it a record €497 million (US$613 million).
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/30/business/EU_FIN_EU_Google_Microsoft.phpIt will never happen...
