Microsoft web browser choice

[Sysman]

If Android ever got a massive dominance in mobile (quite possible) then it might start to be a problem for Google too.

This one is already on the boil: EU 'may take action' against Google over privacy policy

EU watchdogs plan to take action against Google by this summer over the web giant's current privacy policy, French privacy regulator CNIL has said.

Since March, Google has been combining data from across its sites to potentially better target adverts - which regulators see as "high risk" to people's privacy.

Last October, the firm was given four months to revise its policy.

Google said its actions did comply with EU law.

[d000hg]

If Android ever got a massive dominance in mobile (quite possible) then it might start to be a problem for Google too.

[NickFitz]

BBC News - Microsoft fined over web browsers

iTunes pesters me to install Safari every time it updates and Ask toolbar want's to install more often than I'd like, and why did MS only have to offer a choice of 4 browsers when there are so many more out there?

Android ships with Chrome, does OS X come with IE? I really don't see the problem with this, it's not as if MS actively stop people installing whatever they like.

It seems to me they've been fined for not fixing something that no-one else bothers with in the first place, more EU bulltulip.

It's odd if iTunes still wants to install Safari on Windows, given that Apple pulled the product last year and no longer link to downloads on their own site: Safari for Windows is (Probably) Dead: How to Migrate to Another Browser

The browser choice screen has never been limited to four browsers, and on the few occasions I've seen it there were more than four listed. Six or seven IIRC, even though in the real world the only meaningful ones on Windows are IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.

OS X did come with IE for several years - in fact, IE for Mac, which was a completely separate codebase to IE for Windows, was for several years far and away the most advanced browser on any platform in several important respects. But MS stopped developing it, as they did IE6/Win, and once Apple made up for this deficiency by introducing Safari, MS killed it off.

You have to remember the glacial pace at which things like this are dealt with, not least because of the lawyers on both sides dragging things out. This requirement actually makes a deal of sense for the time when the whole case started, but that was about ten years ago. It's pretty meaningless now, and ought to be quietly forgotten.

But bear in mind that MS was penalised because they did, in fact, threaten OEMs that wanted to install another browser in addition to IE on systems they sold to customers with draconian surcharges or the withdrawal of their OEM Windows licenses. That was abuse of a monopoly position to prevent competition in the browser market, and that's not allowed.

[xoggoth]

Quite, why should they be obliged to advertise other products? If I had my way, IE would be the only browser, more rational than all the others. FF is ***!

[Sysman]

But why were they forced to in the first place when other companies push their own software and affiliated partners without penalty?

Seems harsh to me.

There was that bit about them being found to be misusing their position as a monopoly.

Remember that once they had got IE into a monopoly position, they all but abandoned further development on it.

[gingerjedi]

They signed an agreement with the EU that they would provide the choice, and broke the agreement.

Simples.

I know it wasn't in my Windows 7 Ultimate, which was manufactured in Germany.

But why were they forced to in the first place when other companies push their own software and affiliated partners without penalty?

Seems harsh to me.

[Sysman]

It seems to me they've been fined for not fixing something that no-one else bothers with in the first place, more EU bulltulip.

They signed an agreement with the EU that they would provide the choice, and broke the agreement.

Simples.

I know it wasn't in my Windows 7 Ultimate, which was manufactured in Germany.

[gingerjedi]

BBC News - Microsoft fined over web browsers

iTunes pesters me to install Safari every time it updates and Ask toolbar want's to install more often than I'd like, and why did MS only have to offer a choice of 4 browsers when there are so many more out there?

Android ships with Chrome, does OS X come with IE? I really don't see the problem with this, it's not as if MS actively stop people installing whatever they like.

It seems to me they've been fined for not fixing something that no-one else bothers with in the first place, more EU bulltulip.