Microsoft And Google Resolve Search Dispute

Microsoft will let users select a default search program, as they can now with Web browsers, media players, and security programs. Queries from within Vista's Control Panel and certain windows will default to Microsoft's search tool but will include a link to competing products. Microsoft also will make available to developers information that lets them optimize the performance of third-party search products.

Microsoft last week agreed to change the way Windows Vista handles desktop search queries in response to a confidential antitrust complaint filed by Google. It was the first sign of friction between the two companies regarding how Google's software gets treated by Microsoft's newest operating system--but it probably won't be the last.

Google had complained to the Justice Department that Vista's desktop search is anti-competitive because it's difficult to disable and, when Vista's search runs in tandem with Google's search tool, the latter slows to a crawl.