The Justice Department, in a court document released late Friday, said it and other plaintiffs in the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft have finished their look at the IE search feature, which can default to Microsoft's own MSN Search feature in some cases.
This month, Google said it complained to the European Commission about IE 7's search defaults, saying they benefit Microsoft and remove choices for users. The commission is currently examining Microsoft's plans for its Vista operating system, expected to be released next year.
But the Justice Department and other plaintiffs in the U.S. antitrust case said IE 7, now in beta, makes it easy for users to change the default search engine within the browser. Computer makers can select the default search engine for IE, the Justice Department said, although some machines with IE 6 installed may have not included a default search engine because IE 6 did not have a prominent search box.
"Internet Explorer 7 includes a relatively straightforward method for the user to select a different search engine," said the Justice Department in an antitrust compliance report filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "As Microsoft's implementation of the search feature respects users' and OEM's [original equipment manufacturer's] default choices and is easily changed, plaintiffs have concluded their work on this matter."
Ermm.. as expected. Nothing much to say.
