Not too long ago, nearly every move that Microsoft made seemed to draw complaints that the company was abusing its market dominance.

Now another market-leading technology company is under fire in Washington as well. An unlikely combination of onetime antitrust defendants like Microsoft and AT&T and liberal consumer groups that have been their traditional antagonists are taking aim at Google.

Interviews by CNET News.com last week show that Microsoft and its occasional allies have met separately with key congressional committees that deal with consumer protection and antitrust issues--both of which announced last week that they will hold hearings on Google's plan to spend $3.1 billion to buy DoubleClick.

Read more: zdnet.com 

Labels: antitrust, ATT, DoubleClick, microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has again sought court permission to file legal arguments on whether Microsoft is violating terms of an antitrust settlement, a week after a federal judge rebuffed its complaints.

Google told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington that it had a "special interest" in ensuring Microsoft's compliance with a 2001 consent decree barring it from harming competitors. In court filings Tuesday, Google called Microsoft's opposition to its request "inappropriate."

Read more: the International Herald Tribune 

Labels: antitrust, microsoft

After all the hoopla over Google's antitrust complaint against Microsoft, today's court hearing was absolutely anticlimactic.

The feds and the state attorneys general had disagreed on whether Google's complaint was significant, but in the end they all accepted Microsoft's offer to modify Vista and be sure PC makers can preload them with Google's hard-drive search tool.

As expected, the judge basically said she doesn't want to reopen the case against Microsoft and favors the compromise. Google and the states are still making threatening noises and some details have to be worked out, but this episode is over.

Read more: seattletimes.com 

Labels: antitrust, Judge, microsoft, Vista

Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes offered this statement today in response to my inquiry about the company's objections to Windows Vista's desktop search tool.

"Microsoft's current approach with Vista desktop search violates the consent decree and and limits consumer choice. The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index."

Reyes declined to comment further.

Read more: seattlepi.com 

Labels: antitrust, search, Vista, Windows