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Microsoft Complains Google is Anti-Competitive

- By - Source : Tom's Guide US

Pot calling the kettle black?

Friday Microsoft Corp. slammed rival company Google Inc. for anti-competitive business practices. In addition to two small online companies, Microsoft-owned business complained to European Union regulators about Google's action in that region. The claim is that Google is locking in business partners and content while excluding competition.

Currently Microsoft is complying with the European Commission by offering alternatives to Internet Explorer for European users of Windows. Launched today, the update installs directions on how to locate browsers offered by competitors including Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and Opera.

Microsoft's latest anti-competitive attack on Google however seems centered around Google Books, the latter company's plan to digitize millions of books. Dave Heiner, Microsoft's deputy general counsel, even named Google Books in this blog.

"Our concerns relate only to Google practices that tend to lock in business partners and content--like Google Books--and exclude competitors, thereby undermining competition more broadly," he wrote. "Ultimately the competition law agencies will have to decide whether or not Google's practices should be seen as illegal."

Heiner also said that firms who have been hurt by Google should take action and complain to those competition law agencies.

Currently the EU has not conducted an investigation in regards to the recent complaints. Additionally, Google has not responded to the Microsoft blog.

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redplanet_returns 03/01/2010 11:42 PM
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lol...irony at its best

either way, both companies r small potatoes compared to apple's anti-competitive practice

jeffk464 03/02/2010 12:25 PM
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Damn redplanet you beat me to it. What would our jewish friends say hutspa. I don't know how the reporter didn't bust out laughing.

namdur 03/02/2010 12:32 PM
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Anonymous 03/02/2010 12:34 PM
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"The pot calling the kettle black"

7amood 03/02/2010 12:59 PM
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Forcing bing.com into iphones is not anti-competitive enough...
At least google has dignity since they didn't bitch about it.

Anonymous 03/02/2010 1:15 AM
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OK, does this mean that M$ is going to stop screwing Linux over, by collaborating with hardware vendors to sabotage Linux ACPI, and by extorting money out of Linux collaborators like Novell?

azz156 03/02/2010 1:46 AM
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namdur :
that's like calling the Kettle Black... farce from a company who has come last in smartphone software, cloud computing (including the office cloud) and Vista, the crappiest OS on the planet. Shame on you Microsoft, hypocrisy at its best.



whats wrong with all the things u listed?, i use winmo & vista i have little to no problems with ether.

restatement3dofted 03/02/2010 1:55 AM
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Apparently there aren't a lot of people here that know what the word "irony" means. Perhaps the word you were looking for was "hypocrisy"?

That out of the way, none of these tech giants ought to be able to call any of the others anti-competitive with a straight face. Microsoft, Apple, Google, hardware and software manufacturers, etc., are all doing things that one might call "anti-competitive," and it's sort of hard to take Microsoft seriously when they make claims like this. Perhaps they're bitter that they've been slapped with violations time and again over the years - maybe they just want to make sure that if they can't get away with it, no one else will be able to, either?

matt87_50 03/02/2010 6:12 AM
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hey, if the kettle's black...

formin 03/02/2010 7:17 AM
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is it cause nobody is using bing?

Anonymous 03/02/2010 9:09 AM
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I do see karma coming back to haunt MS:
They used their market position in desktops to cripple and then let die Netscape (of course an internet company)
The irony would be if Google (a internet company) could cripple and then make MS die.
But then again with Google the king then the only one who could take them out would be Apple (most likely) and a world under Apple's rule afterwards would be 10x worse than anything Stalin or Hitler could come up with.

balister 03/02/2010 3:34 PM
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This is not irony, this is payback. For years Google and others have been sending anti-competitive remarks to the DoJ and EU against Microsoft. Now Microsoft is turning the tables on the complainers when they too are being anti-competitive. This isn't really "Pot calling the Kettle Black", this is, "You can't have your cake and eat it too".

cookoy 03/02/2010 4:13 PM
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isn't microsoft and amazon teaming up to counter Google Books? what's all the bitching about? if i can't beat you then you must be doing something illegal.

climber 03/02/2010 5:39 PM
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Ok, 80's music time.... yes you'll hate the band but, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"... Tears for Fears.

spentshells 03/02/2010 6:35 PM
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balister :
This is not irony, this is payback. For years Google and others have been sending anti-competitive remarks to the DoJ and EU against Microsoft. Now Microsoft is turning the tables on the complainers when they too are being anti-competitive. This isn't really "Pot calling the Kettle Black", this is, "You can't have your cake and eat it too".



yeah ok he didn't use it right but it is ironic...microsoft getting done to them what they did themselves throught the early mid 90's
and then complaining about it

balister 03/02/2010 8:05 PM
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spentshells :
yeah ok he didn't use it right but it is ironic...microsoft getting done to them what they did themselves throught the early mid 90'sand then complaining about it



No, you're missing the point. Google and a ton of other companies filed complaints with the DoJ and EU trade commision against Microsoft for anti-competitive practices. Now Google and other companies are themselves using anti-competitive practices against Microsoft and others. So Microsoft is now paying Google and others back for what Google and others did to Microsoft, filing complaints with the DoJ and EU trade commision. The difference here is that Microsoft knows how the game is played and will be able to get concessions from the DoJ and EU trade commision against the people that were screaming the loudest about Microsoft before. In essence, Google and others wanted their cake (opening up markets from Microsoft) and to eat it too (closing off markets from Microsoft) and Microsoft is now going to take cake away (anti-competitive actions) by use of the DoJ and EU trade commision so Google and others can't eat it.

ajcroteau 03/02/2010 9:50 PM
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Microsoft should be experts by now at pointing out companies that appear to be Anti-Competitive...

You reap what you sow...

bcube 03/03/2010 4:52 PM
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thief complaining about another theif