Microsoft CEO: Google merits regulatory scrutiny

[Sporkman]

Microsoft CEO: Google merits regulatory scrutiny

Mar 2, 5:30 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer intends to keep the regulatory heat on Google as his company strives to lessen its rival's dominance of Internet search.

In an appearance Tuesday at a search engine conference, Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market. He didn't specify the alleged misconduct...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100302/D9E6P3280.html

[PhoHammer]

Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market.

bs

[clanky]

pot, meet kettle.

[rottentree]

Advertisers, advertisers, advertisers!

[handy]

At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can, for the purposes of:

a) Getting what you want.
&
b) Not getting caught.
&
c) If you do get caught, having someone else take the blame.

[handy]

Advertisers, advertisers, advertisers!

I call them marketroids.

They come from another planet.

[jwbrase]

At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can, for the purposes of:

a) Getting what you want.
&
b) Not getting caught.
&
c) If you do get caught, having someone else take the blame.

Oh, but it *is* about telling the truth. A half-truth is more dangerous than a flat out lie.

[rahilm]

pot, meet kettle.
+1
lolz

[handy]

Oh, but it *is* about telling the truth. A half-truth is more dangerous than a flat out lie.

Oh, right, you must be at law school then.

[aysiu]

Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market. He didn't specify the alleged misconduct... Sure they've done things. They created a search engine that was simple when others were cluttered. They gave back search results that were relevant when others were not relevant. They gave unobtrusive text-based ads when others were giving obnoxious flashing banner ads.

Those three things made Google come out on top at the turn of the millennium when Altavista, Northern Light, Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Go, and a whole host of other search engines were vying for search dominance. At that point, it was simply inertia. Even if other search engines gave similar or better results, people were just so used to using Google that they didn't want to switch.

Google doesn't lock people in the way Microsoft does, though. If someone wants to use Bing instead, they can use Bing. They can use Ask or Cuil or whatever they want.

I can't believe Steve Ballmer would actually accuse another company of shady practices to gain an unfair advantage. Isn't that almost all that Microsoft has done to dominate the desktop / laptop? If Steve Ballmer wants things fair, maybe he can help by not creating proprietary file formats. Maybe Hotmail can just be regular IMAP to be easily used with any email client. Geez.

[tgalati4]

B'ing!

[Fenris_rising]

What an ****!

regards

Fenris

[haydoni]

What an ****!
+1

...but I think I'd have had to use the indefinite article "a"!

[phrostbyte]

NEWSFLASH!

phrostbyte: Microsoft merits regulatory scrutiny

[lisati]

At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can, for the purposes of:

a) Getting what you want.
&
b) Not getting caught.
&
c) If you do get caught, having someone else take the blame.

I think you're on to something here!

[Kai69]

NEWS FLASH The world sues Microsoft for making it too easy to insert a virus into its OS and using a closed source OS and the new CEO gets the boot for being a fascist :tongue:
IF ONLY

[samjh]

Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market.Hypocrisy for the win! :P


At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can, for the purposes of:

a) Getting what you want.
&
b) Not getting caught.
&
c) If you do get caught, having someone else take the blame.

As someone in law school, that's not quite it.

It's about telling a version of the truth most advantageous for you. Quite different from telling lies!

Example:

Real truth: Bad guy calls me a ***. I tell him to "**** off!". He comes up to me in-my-face, trying to intimidate me. I feel threatened and punch him out.

My truth: "That guy was yelling at me for no reason, so I told him to go away. Then he came up to me and tried to attack me, so I defended myself by punching him."

A lie: "That guy was screaming at me, saying he would kill me. I didn't do anything. So he comes up to me and tries to kick me in the head, so I tried to defend myself, then it's all just a blur. Next thing I know, he's knocked out and bleeding on the ground."

;)

[murderslastcrow]

Google does a very good job, and makes some awesome stuff- CONDEMN THEM TO HELL FOR BEING AWESOME!!

Seriously, that's what I get the feeling of here. People choose Google, Google services, Google phones, because there's a clear benefit. Not because they have to, but it's just the best choice.

Kinda' like how some people use Ubuntu, deb files, Ubuntu One, and related services over another distro. They do the same thing, but it's just more beneficial and fun to use those programs together on Ubuntu with an integrated experience.

So yeah, I wish people would stop ragging on Google with this new-age witch hunt. Just because they're successful doesn't make them evil. Other than the Linux Foundation or the FSF, I think Google is on ranks with Canonical in my trustworthy factor.

Microsoft is a whiny kid, getting mad about how he didn't get to go to dinner, completely pushing aside the fact that he's been beating up on his siblings all day long. Get a clue, Microsoft.

[murderslastcrow]

I should add that I meant to say Steve Ballmer, not Microsoft. Maybe if he can calm down and re-evaluate his position in the company and how he can help people out in the long run, not just his pocketbook, something good and commercially beneficial could happen.

Maybe when he leaves we'll be able to point less of a finger at Microsoft and be more curious as to how the company will be reborn. I'm really interested to see what changes over there in the next decade.

[Firestem4]

Sure they've done things. They created a search engine that was simple when others were cluttered. They gave back search results that were relevant when others were not relevant. They gave unobtrusive text-based ads when others were giving obnoxious flashing banner ads.
<snip>

These thoughts mirror mine exactly. Google created the best search engine on the planet, but because it is hurting microsofts business they obviously are doing shady practices to steal market share away from.

"Microsoft: It's only unfair for us when its fair for you."

[aysiu]

If you want to know if a company is acting shady to keep an unfair advantage, the simple question you have to ask yourself is this: "If someone made a better product that does the same thing (only better, of course), how difficult would it be to migrate to that new product?"

In the case of Google, not very. Don't like their search engine any more? Switch to Bing or something else. Don't like GMail any more? Get a new email account and set GMail up to autoforward your messages to that new account. Don't like Google Docs any more? Download your files off their server and upload them to a new online docs server.

In the case of Microsoft, very. Don't like Hotmail? Oops... can't autoforward to another email address. Don't like Outlook? Oops... Hotmail doesn't work consistently (even with add-ons) with a normal email client like Thunderbird or Mail. Don't like Microsoft Office? Well, everyone else is using it, so when you open their .doc or .docx files in OpenOffice or iWork, you'll get only 98% or 99% compatibility instead of 100% compatibility. Don't like Windows? Well, you can install Linux yourself, try to track down a Linux vendor in your country (may not exist) and buy a computer sight unseen and possibly from some company you know nothing about, or pony up serious cash for a Mac. And don't forget all the Windows-only programs and Windows-only peripherals.

[handy]

...
As someone in law school, that's not quite it.

It's about telling a version of the truth most advantageous for you. Quite different from telling lies!


Ok, I edited the following:

At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can (if necessary), for the purposes of:

[Megrimn]

Microsoft spent $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook and processes search requests on that site.

So that's why I can never find anything. :P Thanks, FB.

[WinterMadness]

hopefully it backfires.

if I were MS I wouldnt touch this with a ten foot poll

[handy]

So that's why I can never find anything. :P Thanks, FB.

:lolflag:

That's great! :)

[samjh]

Ok, I edited the following:

At law school you get taught that it is not about telling the truth, it is about telling the most appropriate lies that you can (if necessary), for the purposes of:

Ah, but they aren't lies. ;)

To quote a famous movie character, the wise Obi Wan Kenobi: "...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"

It's not restricted to law. People lie or use biased truths frequently, even daily (more for some than others). Advertising, interviews, news and current affairs reports, arguments between friends or family, even on these very forums! But most of these aren't "lies". A lie is something that is false. A version of the truth, is something that is actually true, but expressed with a slant.

[LowSky]

Remember when people burned others at the stake or drowned them because they believed them to be witches.

It's why we call unmerited searches: witch hunts.

Has Google done something wrong, probably, but so has nearly every other company on the planet.

Personally I think even attempting to use BING (and now Yahoo) is a crime. I can't find anything I'm looking for with it.

[rottentree]

Ah, but they aren't lies. ;)

To quote a famous movie character, the wise Obi Wan Kenobi: "...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"

It's not restricted to law. People lie or use biased truths frequently, even daily (more for some than others). Advertising, interviews, news and current affairs reports, arguments between friends or family, even on these very forums! But most of these aren't "lies". A lie is something that is false. A version of the truth, is something that is actually true, but expressed with a slant.

They are lies.
There is a difference in intentionally(which is pretty underhanded) or unintentionally twisting what you want to say in a way that it sounds in your favour and making big statements(accusations here) but failing to back them up.

[Megrimn]

Personally I think even attempting to use BING (and now Yahoo) is a crime. I can't find anything I'm looking for with it.

Hear, hear!

[Viva]

It must be frustrating being Ballmer. He does all the hard work and most of the world still thinks Gates is the CEO of Microsoft.

[spoons]

To be fair, it's not right that Google and Apple can do whatever the hell they want and Microsoft are constantly pinned as being the bad guy, and getting fined by the EU for not having a browser choice at default. (does MacOSX...? probably not)

It's all double standards and it's rediculous.

[aysiu]

To be fair, it's not right that Google and Apple can do whatever the hell they want and Microsoft are constantly pinned as being the bad guy, and getting fined by the EU for not having a browser choice at default. (does MacOSX...? probably not)

It's all double standards and it's rediculous.
Google and Apple cannot do whatever the hell they want. They get stuck with anti-trust suits all the time. All three companies are based in the US and subject to US laws. In fact, since they've expanded to other countries, they're subject to other countries' laws, too.

Google just got smacked down by Italy for allowing certain objectionable content to be uploaded to YouTube.

Please provide some evidence that Microsoft gets more accountability held to (that is warranted) than Apple or Google. As I explained in previous posts in this thread, Google has done nothing unfair to keep people using Google products. They have no vendor lock-in. Microsoft and Apple have vendor lock-in.

[alexfish]

Poor old Microsoft , well Microsoft this is what I call Sods law
Get back in your pram and stop crying like the big baby you are , if you don't want to do that then take it on the chin like Man , but I Know this would be a fruitless task , so change your nappy first


the one your wearing merits regulatory scrutiny “ its wet and smelly”