Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times indicate that Google has filed formal complaints with the Department of Justice and several states’ attorneys general alleging that Vista Desktop Search violates Microsoft’s existing antitrust settlement, limits consumer choices, and is yet another example of Microsoft leveraging its operating systems monopoly to engage in anticompetitive behavior.
At dispute is Vista Desktop Search, which offers system-wide integrated search capabilities which can not only locate files and documents by name, but also peer inside them to match specific terms and queries. Google, of course, makes a competing product, Google Desktop, but alleges that Microsoft has engineered its own search capability in such a way that it is difficult to impossible for a third party search tool to replace the default search capability. As a result, users who install products like Google Desktop will find their machines reduced to a crawl as both software applications attempt to comprehensively index users’ data.
According to the Wall Street Journal Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith has indicated the company is willing to address Google’s concern, but that the area of desktop search was never included in the scope of the company’s antitrust settlement. Desktop search capabilities were among the new features in Windows Vista reviewed by antitrust officials during Vista’s development.
Nonetheless, the paper reports states are considering opening their own investigations, and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington’s Federal District Court will hear Google’s complains at a hearing later this month. Kollar-Kotelly oversees the administration and enforcement of Microsoft’s antitrust settlement.
