When Microsoft complains that you're a monopolist you know things are bad

Amazon and Google are under the fierce glare of the US Federal Trade Commission, which under the leadership of chair Lina Khan has pursued them over allegations of monopolistic practices. Last week the case against Google, United States v. Google LLC saw Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella take the stand. On his way to become CEO of …

[nematoad]

Told you so.

Soon it will be Microsoft's turn to moan about the stranglehold Google has on the online ad business and search and how that is unfair to a struggling browser owner like themselves.

Wow! That was quicker than I expected.

In one way it's a pity that they can't both lose.

[Peter2]

Re: Told you so.

It was fairly obvious circa 2005 to anybody who thought about it that Google and Amazon would be likely to be the future problematic monopolies.

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

Re: Told you so.

And yet Microsoft continues to rake in the cash thanks to its monopoly on desktop office software, its near monopoly on desktop operating systems, the strong (monopoly linked) position in directory systems...

[v13]

Re: Told you so.

Well, it's not that chromium is opensource and no-thanks to Microsoft, the web is usable by non-Windows operating systems. Oh wait.

[elsergiovolador]

Directory

In court he testified that Google tries to monopolize the search market by paying to make its search engine the default choice for Apple and Android, this strangling support for Bing.

It's interesting that use of Google search resembles bin diving or where they match you with the most appropriate malware to your query.

If there was no monopoly, a company with such a poor product wouldn't have stayed long on the market.

[katrinab]

Re: Directory

I completely agree, but, genuine question, are any of the other ones any better?

Bing certainly isn't any better. The name does at least accurately describe what it is, a very large heap of rubbish, such as you might find in a landfill site.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Directory

There is https://kagi.com/ however, as I understand it depends on more established search engines for results.

[Anonymous Coward]

POT

Until I realised that it was the name of a regular feature, I assumed that the capitalised red "KETTLE" at the start was an old "El Reg"-style dig at Microsoft's blatant hypocrisy (though I did think that "POT" would have been more appropriate).

[Lee D]

The other day I updated Visual Studio for some PHP work.

Imagine my surprise when the "Play" button which has been Google Chrome for all the time I've had it installed suddenly changed to Play - Microsoft Edge.

Despite it not being my preferred browser for literally anything at all whatsoever.

A month before, Outlook did the same, and we rolled out a GPO to stop that.

You can complain about anti-monopoly, Microsoft, when the EXACT THING you were brought to account for to the EU stops re-happening every few minutes in deliberate ways across multiple products that never even had different options before, let alone creating one JUST to set Edge as default.

At this point, I wouldn't touch Edge with a bargepole, despite being a perfectly serviceable browser now, purely because of the shenanigans. I want to know why you're SO KEEN for me to use that to do my banking, emails or coding.

[Greybearded old scrote]

App stores

Your guys asked, "when everything is required to be free, how are app stores to monetise?" Surely they can't all be ignorant of F-Droid? For those who haven't seen it, it's a repository of "free as in freedom" android apps.

After more than 30 years favouring libre apps on my desktop, I'm not about to tolerate anything less on my phone. (I'm still looking into getting a de-googled android on the model I have.)

[Greybearded old scrote]

Re: App stores

I had a brain-fart. Make that nearly 30 years.

[deadlockvictim]

Yes prime Minister

It reminds of the quote from Bernard Woolley:

Bernard Woolley:

That's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.

[mostly average]

Both are evil

But right now, Google's better at being evil. As much as I hate them, Google has a superior search product than Bing. I avoid them both most of the time unless I can't find what I'm looking for, then I use Google as a last resort.

[Anonymous Coward]

Satya Nadella: Google only exists because of our consent decree

Satya Nadella: “Google exists because of two things. One is because of our consent decree, where we had to put a lot of limits on what we could distribute and not distribute by default. And, second, because [of] the fact that you could distribute anything you wanted on Windows, and it's still the case, right, it's not just Google. ... The largest marketplace on Windows happens to be not from Microsoft, it's Steam. And so it's an open platform on which anybody can distribute anything.”

[mark l 2]

I mean Microsoft are sitting on a pile of cash so there is nothing to stop them paying Apple, Samsung, Vivaldi, Mozilla etc a big chunk of it to set Bing as their default search engine if they really wanted to.

Lots of people might switch it back shortly afterwards just like they keep having to do on Windows with Edge and Bing. But it doesn't mean they can't use the same tactics Google are doing of paying to keep people using their search, eventually enough people might stick with it to make it profitable.

[Matthew "The Worst Writer on the Internet" Saroff]

Microsoft Complaining About a Monopolist?

There is a level or irony here that positively buggers the mind.

[Fenton]

Even if Apple/Samsung,etc did switch

Even if all the other providers did switch to bing as a default search engine.

Within hours there would be hundreds of youtube videos telling you how

to switch back to Google Search.

Like Edge today they will just become Chrome/Google search installers