Google loses anti-trust battle with Microsoft

Google Inc. lost its recent antitrust battle with Microsoft on Tuesday when a U.S. District Court judge overseeing latter company's antitrust settlement declined to accept Internet search giant’s request to extend the U.S. government oversight of Microsoft’s antitrust efforts.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who was scheduled to review the report in a hearing on June 26, in her ruling, refused to consider Google’s petition to have the agreement extended beyond November, when major parts of it expire.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly, who oversees the terms of the four-year-old agreement that settled the US antitrust case against Microsoft, said as the software giant has satisfactorily settled a dispute with antitrust regulators by agreeing to alter Windows Vista, so no further action is needed.

For any further concerns about Microsoft's adherence to a 2002 consent decree settling an antitrust case, Google should go to federal and state regulators, she said in a routine quarterly hearing. The judge said she would rely on U.S. government lawyers and state attorneys general to tell her if the Redmond, Washington-based company is not complying with its antitrust obligations.

"As far as I'm concerned, [the states and the Justice Department] stand in the shoes of consumers," Kollar-Kotelly said in the hearing on Microsoft's compliance with the decree. "Google is not a party in this suit."

Earlier this month, Google Inc. had filed a confidential antitrust complaint against Microsoft, accusing the software giant of designing its Vista operating system to discourage use of Google's desktop search program.

In a white paper sent to the Justice Department and state attorneys general in April, Google had alleged that the Windows Vista search feature slows down its competing Google Desktop Search (GDS) program, discouraging consumers from using its search program.

In its complaint, which was tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's behavior, Google had claimed that Microsoft was violating the 2002 antitrust settlement against the company, which restricts software company from designing operating systems that limit consumer choice.

On contrary, Bradford L. Smith, the general counsel at Microsoft, had said at the time that the new operating system was carefully designed to work well with rival software products. He also said that Vista went for sale only after years-long examinations by an independent technical committee that works for the Justice Department and the states, who reviewed Vista several times for possible anticompetitive problems.

But, Internet powerhouse had argued that Microsoft Vista's indexing service cannot be easily shut off and creates a drag on system resources when operating at the same time as rival indexers, like the one in Google Desktop Search. Google further contended that this behavior is anticompetitive, and several state Attorneys General seem ready to pursue the issue.

In response to Google’s complaint, Microsoft last week has agreed to make changes in its Windows Vista operating system, solving the issues that its computer search function put Google Inc. and other potential rivals at a disadvantage.

Under an agreement with the department and 17 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will make such changes which will enable PC users and manufacturers set a different program such as Google Desktop as the default instead of Vista’s “Instant Search.” Microsoft will also add a link to that alternate program in the Start menu on personal computers running Windows.

Apparently not satisfied with the changes Microsoft has agreed to make on the desktop search features of Vista, Google on Monday (June 25) filed a friend-of-the-court brief in U.S. District Court in Washington, asking the judge to extend the consent decree that settled the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

Google contended that the software giant has not done enough to make sure its new desktop search product will make it easier for Windows Vista customers to use a non-Microsoft program to search the hard drive. It further argued that in spite of Microsoft has agreed to revise Vista operating system to fix the issues, but more changes are needed to be done to provide a genuine unbiased choice of desktop search products.