Google on MSIE 7
By glazou on Monday 1 May 2006, 11:04 - Microsoftisms - Permalink
I find this extremely strange, to say the least. Given the fact it is very easy to add a new search provider (including Google) and make it the default search engine in MSIE7, Google is pretty ridiculous here.
Comments
You do realize that as simple as it seems to us, probably 90 percent of people won't every change the default or even know that it can be changed.
Chris: You do realize that the same comment applies to Firefox ? You do realize that the ability to change search engine is in IE7, clearly identified "Find more providers" and "Change Search Defaults", that Google and others are listed on a web page hosted at MSFT only for that purpose ?
I am really shocked by all this : Microsoft played it quite correctly, adding from the very beginning (an early beta preview !) the ability to change the default search engine, and even giving all the technical details (a 'de facto' standard) needed to add your own search engine if you want to ; in that case, I see nothing problematic AT ALL if they also promote their own Web search engine.
Seeing the evil empire everywhere is counterproductive.
I don't find it that strange. In the current situation Google relies on the kindness of Microsoft to provide Google on their search engines. There is no garranty Microsoft will keep the list like it is now.
As for the same page, Google was NOT on it from the start! It added later, probebly after some complaints.
What Chris is saying is that most user won't bother changing default values (in this case the default search engine provided by MSFT), *even* if its easy to do.
There's a lot of research to back up this somewhat generel claim about user behavior, so I can understand Google's anxiety. But if you consider Google's reputation with the common webuser, I think many users will go "the extra mile" and activly choose Google over whatever default search engine that is provided. But even if say 75% of all users that uses the integrated search offered by IE7 chose Google, Google stands to lose a large marketshare (on websearches) to MSFT.
But I don't think Google will get anywhere by claiming that Microsoft are "limiting consumer choice" as long as it's possible to select other search engines.
For more on default values and user behavior, check Jakob Nielsens "The Power of Defaults" and "Personalization is Over-Rated"
www.useit.com/alertbox/de...
www.useit.com/alertbox/98...
Or the good old "The paradox of the active user"
www.cs.vt.edu/~rosson/pap...