Quick, someone go back in time to 2000 and try to convince the first human you find that this would really happen in a decade or so:

Microsoft plans to file a formal antitrust complaint on Thursday in Brussels against Google, its first against another company. Microsoft hopes that the action may prod officials in Europe to take action and that the evidence gathered may also lead officials in the United States to do the same.

Here’s a Senior Vice President at Microsoft explaining the action:

At Microsoft we’ve shown that we’re prepared to work hard and invest literally billions of dollars annually to offer Bing, a search service that many now regard as the most innovative available. But, hard work and innovation need a fair and competitive marketplace in which to thrive, and twice the Department of Justice has intervened to thwart Google’s unlawful conduct from impeding fair competition. In 2008 the DOJ moved to file suit against Google for its unlawful attempt to tie up and set search advertising prices at Yahoo!, causing Google to back down. And last year the DOJ formally objected to Google’s efforts to monopolize book content, a position affirmed by a federal district court in New York just last week. Unfortunately, even this has not stopped the spread by Google of new and disconcerting practices in the United States.

Meanwhile, it looks like Google is trying to lock down control over their Android mobile OS. One of Android’s early selling points was its openness. Gruber at Daring Fireball is calling this a bait-and-switch.

11 replies on “Microsoft Accuses Google of Antitrust Violations”

  2. “Bing, a search service that many now regard as the most innovative available”

    Most people will have to Google “bing” to find out what it is.

  3. Eh, Microsoft, Google, Comcast, AT&T – they’re all monopolies. Didn’t they get the memo that nobody cares anymore?

  5. I’m all for this kind of lock down on android. If you want to take the code that Google publishes and make your own kind of device, that’s fine. But Google can and should limit the changes that partners make by certifying what they can and can’t do. If you don’t like it, feel free to fork the code and go it alone.

  6. Well, assuming you give a shit about quality and/or innovation and aren’t just blindly following brands like a lemming, Bing pretty much beats Google in every way.

    I’m just sayin’…

  8. MS is just PO’d that Eurocrats have been milking them for $1 Billion per year just to keep selling DOS 10 (sorry Windows 7) to Frenchie at the same familiar high prices.

    Let them get their chits and fondue from others, sez Ballmer.

  9. #7 is right. A while back I read about a test where people would make up words and implant search results for the made up words on google and shorty after the search results would show up on bing.

  10. Bing uses google….what the fuck I don’t even

    I’ve held off on getting Android for that reason, I thought I was being paranoid but now I get to wave the “I told you so” banner when everyone’s android becomes just another iphone.

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