C'mon Google, you can't seriously be upset that you can't get your search engine
integrated into
every piece of
software known to man,
right? Actually, it appears that the search giant can indeed bust out the whiner card on occasion, and it has apparently done just that in regard to the Vista Search that's built into Microsoft's latest OS. Reportedly,
Google accused Microsoft of "designing Vista to discourage users from running its indexing and search software," and a company spokesman even went so far as to claim that Redmond's current approach "violates its agreement with the government and hurts consumers." Google's gripes start to grow legs when you consider just how difficult it is to actually disable or modify Vista's ingrained search tactics, and while
Microsoft has supposedly stated that it is "committed to going the extra mile to resolve this issue," there doesn't look to be any timetables set for giving users the ability to choose just yet.
[Thanks, Dinraj P.]
posted June 11th 2007 11:03AM
Google desktop search is the freak'n devil of google add-ons... Any computer I have seen it running on destroys performance.
I'm still too pissed at google for renaming their personalized homepage "iGoogle" to deal with this, And Vista search works great for me. Miles ahead of google desktop search.
this is not fair.....
XP didn't have an indexed search, so people complained.
Vista has an indexed search, and people still complain.
What do you guys want from Microsoft ???
They want them to make exactly $20 in profits every year, and donate that to a Linux distro.
Seriously, I've always said that the antitrust suits against Microsoft are like suing Ford for putting a Ford-branded stereo in the cars they sell. Of course the car stereo manufacturers want you to sell the cars with no radio at all, so people have to buy a radio after they buy the car if they want to use one -- that would greatly expand the aftermarket car stereo market, helping their business. But the customer probably wants a radio without having to go out and shop for one, and for many/most people whatever works is fine. If you want a "better" car stereo, you can still junk the Ford one (or resell it or whatever) and install one from JVC or Sony or whoever.
The whole antitrust thing is just a bunch of whiners who want to use the courts to bludgeon their way into a market that their product isn't good enough to stand in on its own.
This makes me sad. While I understand the argument that Google wants Desktop Search to be a "viable" option, they can't blame Microsoft for wanting to improve their own OS's features that have been lacking in the last few editions.
Just as many have said, Windows 95/98/2000/XP all had pretty sluggish searches, even with the 'Indexing Service' turned on. Now Vista comes along and totally changes that and Google has to whine. This is just plainly ridiculous. There is nothing stopping someone from using Google's Desktop Search if they want to. The point is, no one wants to use it on Vista, so improve it Google or get over it.
The fact that these 'anti-trust' arguments/'forced interoperability' (which is not even true, they ARE interoperable) suits are STILL going on with Microsoft really irks me. Ok, back in Windows 95/98 days, maybe even into the Windows 2000 days as well I could see the whole anti-trust/monopoly deal. But now.. no way.. that's totally a thing of the past. Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and other Linux distros are just as easy to install as Windows XP/Vista is now. Not only that, but their interfaces are no longer 'retro' looking and can even look nicer than XP (Beryl/Mac OS X). The main Windows is still as main stream as it is now is because most computers come with it installed already. Why fix it if it isn't broken?
Anyhow, Google really does come off as a bunch of mindless pigs when they do this kind of stuff. They should stop wasting all this litigation time and work on their software so that it surpasses Windows Vista's search or at least work on other projects. This is just dumb.
Oh, and just to add a little more: Dells are now coming with Ubuntu and I have definitely noticed more and more people buying Mac laptops. I think at least five or six people in the IT department here use Mac. While they don't do any code development, mostly because we code in C# 2.0, so we use Visual Studio 2005; however, they really do love the OS over Windows.
I'd say in the next decade or so you'll see the "5% market share" of Mac grow easily into 15-20% and Linux maybe somewhat near that if it keeps evolving. I understand that these OSes are less 'user-friendly' (ie; 'computer illiterate friendly'), but they are becoming more and more easy to use for beginners or people that have some knowledge and want to check out a new OS.