Google: Our monopoly is not enough

Google has been lobbying US and EU regulators, claiming that Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer should be reviewed under anti-trust regulations.

Google concern is that Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer will have a search box, that searchers can use to select their search preferred search engine - and that the default will be MSN Search.

This means that users may be more likely to use Microsft’s own search engine more often.

However, it’s worth putting in perspective that Google are not only the dominant search engine in the USA - they also have an effective monopoly in the UK when it comes to search.

Google also sponsor the Mozilla Firefox browser, and have that browser set by default to use Google search.

It seems in this instance that Google are quite aware that Microsoft may be able to increase its market share in search - but while that may be bad for Google’s over-inflated share price, it’s good for users.

This is especially important in the UK, which desperately needs proper competition in the search industry.

It’s also worth pointing out that if Microsoft ever disabled JavaScripted ads by default in Internet Explorer, they could sink Google almost overnight.

In the meantime, Google isn’t simply happy with having a monopoly in search, but want to entrench that position as much as possible.

Which is a reasonable corporate attitude, and all the more reason why Google’s own actions should be better noticed by the appropriate monopoly regulators.

ADDED: Microsoft make various comments in return here - IE Team responds - IE7 team make direct comment.

Discussion: Google complain about IE7.