>>Ramping up its efforts to build search market share, Microsoft signed a deal to embed a Live Search toolbar on all Hewlett-Packard consumer PCs in North America starting next year.
In addition, Live Search will be the default search engine on browsers on the computers, the companies said. Both features will be included in HP PCs in January 2009.<<
From:
Microsoft, HP Do Search Deal for PCs
>>Some Microsoft competitors have cried foul at previous efforts by the software giant to tie its search platform into its browser. Two years ago when Microsoft launched IE7 in beta, it set Live Search as the default search provider in a toolbar in the browser, although users can hit a drop-down menu to change the search provider to a handful of other companies. At the time, Google complained to the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice that the default setting removes choice for users. Google has a similar setup in Mozilla's Firefox browser, which comes with Google as the default search bar. The DOJ found that Microsoft makes it easy enough for users and computer makers to change the default setting. <<
The problem is not that it is easy to change the default setting - it is that it is the default setting at all! Imagine a car that would only run on a particular brand of gas until you took it somewhere and had the default changed. Most people do not have the ability or the patience to change the default - they will just leave it as it is. Way back when, you had a choice of three or more browsers when you bought a computer - now it is handed to you and you are told to use it.
Sorry, but they just don't get it.
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