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Danny Hakim reports at the NYT that as European antitrust regulators formally accuse Google of abusing its dominance, Microsoft is relishing playing a behind-the-scenes role of scold instead of victim. Microsoft has founded or funded a cottage industry of splinter groups to go after Google. The most prominent, the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, or Icomp, has waged a relentless public relations campaign promoting grievances against Google. It conducted a study that suggested changes made by Google to appease regulators were largely window dressing. “Microsoft is doing its best to create problems for Google,” says Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, the center-right party that is the largest voting bloc in the European Parliament. “It’s interesting. Ten years ago Microsoft was a big and strong company. Now they are the underdog.”
According to Hakim, Microsoft and Google are the Cain and Abel of American technology, locked in the kind of struggle that often takes place when a new giant threatens an older one. Microsoft was frustrated after American regulators at the Federal Trade Commission didn’t act on a similar antitrust investigation against Google in 2013, calling it a “missed opportunity.” It has taken the fight to the state level, along with a number of other opponents of Google. Microsoft alleges that Google's anti-competitive practices include stopping Bing from indexing content on Google-owned YouTube; blocking Microsoft Windows smartphones from "operating properly" with YouTube; blocking access to content owned by book publishers; and limiting the flow of ad campaign information back to advertisers, making it more expensive to run ads with rivals. "Over the past year, a growing number of advertisers, publishers, and consumers have expressed to us their concerns about the search market in Europe," says Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. "They've urged us to share our knowledge of the search market with competition officials."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @06:54AM
And by "blocking Microsoft Windows smartphones from operating properly with YouTube" they mean: Preventing us from accessing Youtube servers without permission, then not developing a Youtube app for Windows Phone just because we didn't want to pay for it.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 17 2015, @08:02AM
I guess Google could always pull up some "cease and desist" letters and say by blocking content to Microsoft systems, they were only following the Copyright letter of the Law...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Informative) by t-3 on Friday April 17 2015, @09:56AM
No, youtube doesn't work properly on Windows phones. If I go to youtube on my windows phone (yeah, I use one because it's awesome for txts, calls, and social and that's all I need a phone for other than music and they all suck at that), I'm lucky if I can search, because everything keeps moving around and flickering, then when I play a video it's unwatchable because of flickering and weird screen glitches, although the audio is usually ok.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @12:29PM
Did you try in a real browser?
Or is Google also blocking Firefox on Windows Phone?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 17 2015, @05:47PM
Oh, you mean it does the Exact Same Thing that my LG G2 does with embedded Youtube videos? Sounds more like crappy support from whoever produced the phone. Palemoon doesn't work either, but I think the Dolphin browser got it working. I uninstalled Dolphin though 'cause I didn't know enough about them and didn't trust them enough. Youtube works fine, if I use the Youtube app though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"