Microsoft CEO says unfair practices by Google led to its dominance as a search engine::Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Monday that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his company’s rival program, Bing. Nadella testified in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom as part of the government’s landmark antitrust trial against Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The Justice Department alleges Google has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers, allegations that echo a similar case brought against Microsoft in the late 1990s.
Microsoft crying about unfair tactics and monopoly? That’s ironic.
hperrin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I mean he’s not wrong, but you know, pot, kettle, etc.
coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“They did what we did, and now we are pissed.”
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
True pot, the kettle might be a slut, but you’re a god damn whore!
ShakeThatYam@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Windows is constantly nagging you to switch to Edge when you use a non-Edfe browser but apparently Nadella is totally cool with that.
hperrin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yep. Microsoft has been successfully sued for monopolistic behavior, but yeah, pot, kettle, etc.
Takes a monopoly to know a monopoly, I guess.
ikidd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Man, I booted up a Windows laptop I use for 3D printing software for the first time in 6 months. The fucking popup ads for Microsoft shit were out of control. Fuck that shit, I turned it off and started searching for something that works under Linux.
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I’ve been using Firefox on Windows for a few years (and Chrome for many years before that) and I can’t remember the last time it nagged me, if it ever did. I’ve sometimes wanted to temporarily switch the default browser back to Edge and the setting to do it hard to find if you don’t know where to look.
MimicJar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I mean, he is wrong. Google isn’t the default on Windows, but Chrome and Google search dominate Windows.
Google is the default for Android, so we can discuss that (but that isn’t what Microsoft is complaining about.)
That just leaves macOS and more importantly iPhone. Google pays to be the default there. Is that unfair? Should Apple be able to bid for/charge a company to be the default?
Additionally in all these cases switching is easy.
I won’t deny that being the default is an advantage but it isn’t like users can’t switch. You can remove Google search from your phone and it will work just fine. You can change the defaults on your Safari browser in a few clicks.
To be clear if this case uncovers shady/illegal behavior from Google, fuck 'em, but I’m not seeing it.
hperrin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
IMHO, no, he’s not wrong. Google is the default because they’re paying to be the default. That’s monopolistic.
It’s also not easy to switch from Google. In Safari, DuckDuckGo is set as my default search engine, but Siri will still use Google when I ask to search something. Same with Google Assistant. Sure, you can disable Google search on your phone, but that also removes other features that aren’t even related to search (like Assistant, which only runs if the Google app is enabled).
To me, that is absolutely anticompetitive behavior.
obelisk@lemmy.world 1 year ago
While I mostly agree with what you’re saying here, I would like to point out that removing Google Search from an Android device can prevent a user from accessing other applications or specific features within (obviously Google developed apps). I guess that one really comes down to what we think working “just fine” is.
TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Microsoft once bailed out Apple to show they have competition. Google financially supports Firefox so have a modicum of competition.
Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi 1 year ago
The Microsoft bailing out apple for competition, is arguably worse than firefox and google. Why? Because apple software required apple hardware.
Microsoft had essentially a monopoly on every piece of computer hardware that was not made by apple, while apple was (and still is) in its own playground with its own glue to eat. They weren’t really competing. If you wanted something that was not expensive apple hardware, Microsoft was the only option.
Now Linux is more of an option, but at 2-3% of the market share, it’s hardly the start of competition.
I believe Microsofts 3 point plan involved these things:
And Microsoft isn’t the only company guilty of this, Adobe, Autodesk, and so many more. And parts 2 and 3 are still issues today that are incredibly hard to stop. Because the vast majority of people, including politicians don’t care or don’t want to switch. Windows, Office and the Adobe suite are practically ingrained into society at this point, and people are more likely to use the familiar, and fear or get frustrated with the unfamiliar.
Eldritch@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This is more of a pot calling a pot black. The whole Kettle argument is implying projection. In this they’re not projecting just hypocritical.