Google very likely woke up a sleeping giant. You might even say that their concerns with the MSN access in the IE browser is well reflected in this concern?

SEATTLE - Google Inc. is hoping to pressure Microsoft Corp. into changing a new Internet Explorer browser feature that could direct more people to Microsoft’s online search engine instead of Google’s far more popular offering.

Google has informally complained to U.S. and European antitrust regulators about what it says are biased settings on Microsoft’s latest Web browser, marking the latest spat between two companies whose business models are increasingly bumping up against one another.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google regards Microsoft as the biggest threat to its continued success, and Microsoft has conceded that Goggle is a formidable competitor as well.

The next version of Internet Explorer, available now in test form, includes a box in the corner that lets people perform an Internet search without going to a separate Web page, much like what’s available from Google’s downloadable “toolbar.”

Users who download IE 7 will be assigned a search engine preference based on the AutoSearch function from the previous version of IE, which is likely to be MSN Search. Google says it’s concerned that Microsoft’s own search engine is getting favored treatment, and said research it has sponsored shows that it’s difficult to change the settings in the new browser to a rival search engine…. Source: AP

[tags]internet explorer,msn search,sleeping giant,autosearch[/tags]