Bing integrated all over the place? Does Microsoft honestly think they'd lost enough market share that they are no longer viable candidates for antitrust lawsuits?
Obivously, and I'd argue rightfully. Microsoft HAS lost market share, especially if you include tablet/smartphone OSs in the mix. I cannot seem to find it now, but not too long ago I ran across a survey which included portable devices into their calculations of OS marketshare percentages, and determined that Microsoft now has a minority share of the global OS market when those numbers are included.
Microsoft still dominates on the desktop, but the desktop doesn't matter like it once did. I doubt that the government will express much interest here, and rightfully so.
I guess I'm a little shocked at how willingly everyone just thinks this is ok. Bundling like this is not in the best interest of the consumer. Why would interested in artificially inflating a company's market share in an unrelated space because you forget to disable it?
Are you going to be ok if Microsoft introduces ad tiles in Metro?
Yeah, what if Apple force-bundled their maps service on the iPhone and gave it OS-level hooks that no other apps were allowed? We'd all be in upro- oh, wait
EDIT: below was a conversation with rdouble, who decided to delete his entire half of the thread.
When did I say I was talking about inside apps only? There's a reason I specified OS-level hooks. The entire point is that Apple does not let you choose the Maps application your OS uses- even at it's worst, IE's "default browser" behaviour could be changed.
That is discussing sending the user to the Google Maps app rather than the Google Maps mobile site. Nothing to do with Apple's OS-level handling in places like Contacts, where it is impossible to use a different Maps application.
Tightly integrated products have many benefits to consumers. Bing isn't being integrated (solely) to "inflate" its market share, it's being integrated to improve the Windows user's experience. Google doesn't even necessarily support all of the APIs that are needed for the integration, and you can always use it via a browser if desired.
I doubt even the EU will act against the only meager competition to Google's absolute dominance. Not to mention that devices with Google as default are the majority these days because of iOS, Android on phones and tablets with declining PC sales. Bing is only default in IE which in nullified in EU because of the browser ballot, Google pays off Mozilla and some OEMs to have it as the default.
