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0 pointsLeonM6y ago0 comments

> By what right does google set the search engine to begin with? They use their browser's popularity for a competitive advantage and that's legal.

I'd say it's customer expectation. The slogan in the Chrome website is: Now more simple, secure, and faster than ever - with help from Google built‑in [0]

So, if I install Chrome I expect Google search to be built-in, and I am okay with that because it was clearly stated on the product page.

Now, when I install Office, which is not a browser to begin with, I don't expect it to change my default search provider.

[0] https://www.google.com/chrome/

0 comments

9 comments · 4 top-level

wdobbels6y ago· 4 in thread

Exactly. The browser provides a URL bar that is coupled to a search engine. It makes sense for the browser to provide you with a default option for that search engine. A web browser is something that needs to be on every computer; so it makes sense that the OS installs a default web browser.

What doesn't make sense is that some software (office) tampers with your preferences for a (mostly) unrelated piece of software (chrome). That is not office's responsibility.

lonelappde6y ago

Do you know how many years and millions of dollars the US government spent prosecuting Microsoft for their belief that " web browser is something that needs to be on every computer"?

Karunamon6y ago

Inaccurate. Microsoft was not prosecuted for merely including IE, they were prosecuted for forcing OEMs to not include anything else (Netscape).

jchw6y ago

That’s, to my knowledge, a pretty big misrepresentation of the case, that from my understanding has quite a few facets.

> Microsoft would terminate Compaq's licence if it removed IE and substituted Netscape, or even if it put the Netscape icon alongside the Explorer one.

wizzwizz46y ago

That sounds like the G-suite on Android.

lonelappde6y ago· 1 in thread

Why is a browser a search engine but an office suite isn't?

cmcd6y ago

What do you mean? There is no reason an office suite should be changing configuration for your browser without explicitly asking.

Traster6y ago

Okay, and how do we compare that to the legal trouble microsoft had with setting IE as the default browser. As a customer of course I expect IE to be built in to windows. Yet that wasn't ok.

C1sc0cat6y ago

I don't I expect a browser to be a browser and that's the exact argument Microsoft lost about bundling IE with windows

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