From the Karma Dept.: Microsoft Accuses Google of Unfair Practices
Turnabout, as reported in the Seattle Times:
Microsoft plans to file a formal antitrust complaint Thursday in Brussels against Google, its first against another company. Microsoft hopes that the action may prod officials in Europe to take action and that the evidence gathered may also lead officials in the United States to do the same.
It should be interesting to see how this turns out.
Google has certainly gotten big–some feel, uncomfortably big. I try to avoid using Google stuff simply so as not to feed them any more information about myself than I already have. I use Startpage for my default search engine, rarely use Gmail (using my Android G1 necessitated a Gmail account), and never use Google Docs. I do use the calendar and occasionally use Google Maps.
I don’t refuse to use Google stuff when it is the best alternative because, by and large, they seem to try to live up to their “Don’t be evil” motto. The times they’ve made mistakes, as with the startup of Buzz, they seem to have genuinely been mistakes.
Google has crushed the competition by making stuff that works, that persons use willingly. Google stuff is free in terms of money, and most users seem willing to pay the cost in privacy.
This differs from Microsoft’s model of copy, co-opt, and crush.
So it’s hard for me to feel sympathy for Microsoft.