Microsoft Changing Users' Default Search Engine 389
BabyDuckHat writes "Cnet's Dennis O'Reilly caught 'Windows Search Helper' trying to change his default Firefox search from Google to Bing. This isn't the first time the software company has been caught quietly changing user's preferences to benefit its own products."
Re:Once more with feeling (Score:4, Interesting)
Also installing unwanted Firefox extension (Score:2, Interesting)
On Tuesday Microsoft also pushed an update for their .Net runtime that again tried to install a some kind of Firefox extension. I had already removed this extension and the associated registry entry a few months ago when the latest .Net runtime was installed. Here they are doing it again.
Microsoft still doesn't get it and never will (Score:1, Interesting)
Just looking at Bing you see that aside from being heavily laden with background graphics it is more or less a functional copy of google's search engine. Why is it that microsoft has never been able to innovate anything interesting on their own? What's the matter M$ can't you succeed in the market without copying others' hard work? Every little bit of success they've ever had has involved stealing or copying from the success of others. Ballmer's past vitriol against google demonstrates an important internal mindset: they are VERY jealous of success and long for the early glory days when microsoft first had a taste of this. Their past actions towards Netscape show that they will do anything to return to these days.
I for one will never switch from google -- besides the fact that they take the minimalist approach they also provided a search engine with the mindset "what can we do to enrich the world" vs. the microsoft mentality of "how can the world enrich microsoft".
Maybe a but more research next time /. ? (Score:4, Interesting)
His proof is the event view showing the MS Search service "starting". You know, the one that's actually for searching your own computer. And the timing of it was right after start-up.
I'm not saying it was, or it wasn't. But his proof is flimsy at best. His conclusion something I expect from the typical college age
How about some actual proof of what happened. For all we know this tool downloaded something that asked him to change search engines and in his haste to get to porn (which btw Bing is king at), just clicked through without looking, and when he rebooted next time the change tried to happen. Or it could be that the MS Search service tried to hide a change. But I don't buy it based on his SS of a service starting (wow) and his own "jump" to a conclusion. Especially since if it were true there should be reports of it all over.
Re:Surprise surprise... (Score:2, Interesting)
Yup. This is what you get when you use software made by for-profit groups. Say what you will about how capitalism (greed) is good, how it promotes competition and growth. Sure - but it also puts a stopper in it. People that really care about making good software make it free. Between them, and corporate businesspeople, I think I trust the former when it comes to making my software.
Now go ahead and mod me overrated.
Re:Too late. I already switched my default. (Score:2, Interesting)
Did you click any of the buttons? (Score:2, Interesting)
Funnily enough, clicking on any "Add to Internet Explorer" button in Firefox opened a window suggesting I install IE8 to use the feature - any button except for the button under Bing. That one opened a message box informing me that Firefox doesn't support this search provider.
Link to Page, funny (Score:3, Interesting)
Not sure if this is funny or sad. Seeing was believing:
Search Box > "Find More Providers..."
Takes you here:
http://www.ieaddons.com/en/searchproviders
With the following
Bing, NYT, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, OneRiot, ESPN, Truveo, Google, Bidtopia, Freebase
Go Freebase and Bidtopia, you *almost* caught Google. Keep up the good work!
Re:Microsoft still doesn't get it and never will (Score:5, Interesting)
For stuff other then videos, yeah, Google is king and will be for a loooong time.
Re:Surprise surprise... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Surprise surprise... (Score:1, Interesting)
Christ, tell me about it!
This is why i completely blacklisted those fuckers forever and permanently removed all their software.
I don't give a damn about music (read: recent music), why the fuck would i ever want iTunes?
Oh well, looks like i will be having none of that anymore. Oh poor me.
This kind of shit is just as bad as malware and it really really should be brought to the legal departments.
But in saying that, they probably have some shitty agreements that people click on that prevents anyone doing anything to them.
Fuck Apple and Microsoft.
IE7 has been misbehaving too (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Google Owns Search (Score:5, Interesting)
They haven't just copied Google either.
The Bing Travel page is almost a pixel-perfect copy of the Kayak travel site [douglassims.org].
It seems imitation is the strategy of the Bing team.
Re:Parent does have a point... proof? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's a good point; I hadn't even caught that. This article is basically the definition of assumptions.
Not to say it's wrong, but it is not even remotely well-sourced.
Re:Maybe a but more research next time /. ? (Score:2, Interesting)
I had to go into about:config to fix things.
Is this really true though? (Score:2, Interesting)
I have both Windows Vista and Windows 7 RC1 running, have installed IE8, Silverlight, and have all my updates turned on... and it hasn't happened. My default IE8 search is Bing, but that's only because I set it that way. What's funny is that when I installed Google Chrome, it looked at my IE settings and asked me if I wanted to keep using Bing, to which I replied 'NO'.
I'm sorta wondering if this dog really bites.
Epiphany on Ubuntu 8.04 (Score:2, Interesting)
I used my addressbar to search a rather long search term that should have hit google, but instead hit bing which said it couldn't find anything. I was baffled to say the least. My search terms point to google's "I'm feeling lucky" entry, by the way - but put the terms in google search if the terms are too specific.
Happened today. True story.
Re:Surprise surprise... (Score:4, Interesting)
That's because IE7 IS a update to IE6. How the heck is Safari an update to Quicktime or iTunes?
Re:Once more with feeling (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Once more with feeling (Score:5, Interesting)
Nobody would care about MS having a monopoly if they actually made the best software. Or if they released all their software for free, as Google does.
Re:Ock the Knife... (Score:3, Interesting)
He's talking about the search bar that comes with IE (I think 7 and 8, but I am not sure about 7). It's like the search bar that comes with Firefox. Unlike the Firefox add-on though, which by default searches 7 different engines and has the capability to add literally hundreds more, the MS one by default only searches Bing and allows you add maybe 10 more. One of the ones you can add is Google, but as GP points out it's at the bottom of the list and not well labeled.
Hope they... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hope they go to court over this and finally learn a hard lesson. You can't change the settings on a user's computer without his knowledge and approval. Doing so, makes you a criminal capable of going to jail .... if enough people set up a class action lawsuit, they WILL get M$ on this. Sony was caught and faced a big fine for doing this, as for M$ trying to use the old, well it's our OS and we can do what we want with it...those days are over as per the previous Anti trust case against them in EU.
When will they learn, I guess we are doomed to repeat are failures...no?
Redirect Bing to Google (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had msnbot rejected from my site for many years. The just under a year ago I get a request from someone working for MSN Live Search asking to remove the block from robots.txt. I said, "no" and gave her the short version of my falling out with Microsoft (just the 1995 to 1998 subset).
Then I started getting hits from Bing. Their support site only mentioned msnbot gathering information, so how did my site get index? Well, this had to stop.
So, I wrote a filter that would redirect anything with a REFERER from bing.com to google.com with the same search query. After running for a few weeks now, I see that some IP addresses never return, but most come back from Google - often with more specific search queries than the first time. I still haven't heard a word from the confused Bing users about it, though. So I'm guessing that it works well for keeping the completely clueless out.