I love it when things are on schedule. Such is the case with Google’s complaints about Internet Explorer 7 with regards to the search box in the top-right corner. You can read all about it here. To quote from the article:

The new browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft’s MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors.

The move, Google claims, limits consumer choice and is reminiscent of the tactics that got Microsoft into antitrust trouble in the late 1990s.

Limits consumer choice, huh? How many of you are aware of the fact that Google actively promotes the use of FireFox whenever it can, even on the Google homepage? I’m sure you must have noticed that. And how many of you know that when you install FireFox, the default search engine in FireFox is set to Google automatically?

This kind of stuff just seriously pisses me off. Google’s hypocrisy is once again very clear. While they’ve been doing the exact same thing they now fear that Microsoft is going to do (Microsoft isn’t), they now start complaining about Internet Explorer while it hasn’t even been released yet. Don’t you get really angry when you see this kind of stuff happening?

Google has informed the European antitrust authorities of its worry that “Microsoft’s approach to setting search defaults in Internet Explorer 7 benefits Microsoft while taking away choice from users,” said Steve Langdon, a spokesman for Google.

I’m willing to bet that Google ofcourse never mentioned to the European antitrust authorities that they have been taking choice away from users in FireFox for a long time now by making Google the default search engine there.

And all of this, while Microsoft has made it very easy to add your own search engine to the search box in Internet Explorer 7 in the first place. And get this: I recently installed Internet Explorer 7, and after the installation guess what the default search engine was when I launched Internet Explorer? Yep, Google. Before installing IE7, I had the Google toolbar installed in IE6. So I guess the setup routine for IE7 knew I used Google, and set the default search engine accordingly. Simply wonderful.

So you’d wonder why Google so strongly feels the need to attack IE7. Like I said at the beginning, they are right on schedule. It was to be expected. IE7 is a HUGE improvement over IE6. HUGE. Install it and use it for a while, and you’ll notice the difference. It has many new features and security has improved. And the version for Windows Vista will be even better. When even Bruce Schneier can get excited about it, you know something is up. FireFox is going to have a lot of difficulty competing with IE7, and Google knows this. Google also knows that MSN search is getting better all the time. And as I said before, once MSN search becomes merely as good as Google, Google is going to have big problems. MSN search is getting there, and Google seems to have hit the ceiling when it comes to innovation making it a lot easier for MSN search to catch up.

Google also knows that Windows Vista is going to hurt them badly, not only when it comes to desktop search, but search in general. I wrote about this before. And the Windows Live platform is also shaping up to become a serious problem for Google, with major parts such as Windows Live Mail to be launched very soon. With all of this, the future seems very difficult for Google. And I was under the impression that Google would not make the mistake that Netscape made, to attack Microsoft instead of choosing to just do what they are good at. But as Microsoft is increasingly becoming more dangerous to them, they seem to have become very worried and perhaps need such desperate options right now to “protect themselves” before it is too late.

And I have to say, their hypocrisy doesn’t make me feel any sympathy for them at all.