It’s ironic that Google is claiming that IE7′s search default pointing to MSN is anticompetitive given that IE7 is using Open Search while Safari, Firefox, and Opera are not. With Open Search anyone can write a search plugin, everyone from Google to Friendly Hippo Electronics (really), in fact there are over 398 search plugins available today on this search format meaning IE7 has several orders of magnitude more search options than any competing browser.

Of course, Google could also make available a script from their search page or as a button on any site (perhaps as part of AdSense) that overwrites the default search engine in IE7 with Google (with user permission of course). In the end this is nothing more than a cheap shot by Google, they don’t care about users. What they really see is Microsoft responding to Firefox with a really compelling browser and that concerns Google considering how much traffic Firefox has driven to them.

The natural extension of Google argument here would be for Microsoft to claim that the Google desktop search bar should offer users choices for search on first run, which of course Google would fight.

Technorati Tags: google, microsoft, search