Thursday, September 04, 2008

'Do No Evil', Be A Hypocrite!

"The New York Times reports that Microsoft's new Internet browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors."

This was what Google was shouting from rooftops when IE7 was launched. And they conveniently made the world forget that Apple's Safari and Mozilla Firefox always had Google as their default search engine. But it seems that someone is celebrating 'Make Microsoft Look God Day' and to commemorate this, they launched a browser!

Unlike IE, FF or Safari you don't have a separate browser in-built search box in Chrome. To search for anything you simply need to type search term in address bar and press enter. This may sound very cool but you can do this in any of above mentioned browsers too! For IE by default this is MSN/Live Search and for FF it is Google. (Try it now, in another tab. Not this one!). And obviously you can reset the defaults.

By removing the search box from Chrome, Google has ensured that nobody is going to bother with changing the search engine. Currently I have many search engines in my search box (see image below) and
I use them as and when needed. So when I want to search a YouTube video I choose YouTube Video Search. Or IMDB when I want to find some movie. Or Yahoo India search when I want a portal like view for information.

But now all that is over. Chrome still gives you option of changing default search (Go to Options->Default search) but it has been made so complicated that nobody will bother to. I am not going to set IMDB/Youtube as default even if I want to search for movie/video. I WILL have to do it on Google!
I have written custom search plugins for browsers which let me add my company's Bug Database and People Search applications, so I can search these intranet applications without opening these applications. These do not work on Chrome!


How convenient isn't it! The instant media blitzkrieg that Google will get is sure to translate in millions of downloads.

I can see Wallstreet smiling already!


10 comments:

Amit S said...

If am not wrong we can change the default search engine in Chrome.
And you are forgetting the fact that chrome is still in beta stage. hence they might come up with better way for you to use your intranet search too... Just wait n watch.

Waterfox said...

You sure can change but how many of us will do that each time. I mean I can't use my BugDB plugin to search for anything else but a bug number.
And I can't search for Bug number on Google! So does that mean, I go and change the search each time I want to do that? I will have to navigate to BugDB application!

As far beta thing, GMail was in beta for 4 years :)

Amit S said...

GMail 'is' still in Beta. But the features has been improved and new added. But you forgetting, Chrome is Open Source. Like FF, chrome will also get Open community support and mature as time goes on.

Anonymous said...

ah, well..google has its own definitions of evil... meanwhile, goog's problem with ms earlier had more to do with ie being bundled alongwith all the windows that went into the market, and thus making MSN search as a default, right?

Anonymous said...

well, google has its own definitions of evil... meanwhile, goog's problems with ms stemmed more from ie being bundled with the os, which would give msn search an unfair advantage, right?

Waterfox said...

Well Amit, I hope that Chrome does not step on the feet of Mozilla.

Yes Manu, you are right. That was Goog's problem. But changing the search engine in IE was so easy even if MSN was default search. Here I am sure many would keep on guessing and most won't even think about it.

And however few people use Linux and Mac, Goog is the default there.

Amit S said...

I just figured out that in Chrome when you type on address bar say,
search.yahoo.com 'query', Chrome shows you text 'Search yahoo for' After this query a text Box is appended in the New tab allowing you to search for Yahoo also. This solves your problem of having all those Search Box in FF. :)

Waterfox said...

This stumps me! I tried search.yahoo.com in my office computer chrome and it didn't give the search yahoo option, but in my laptop it shows this option!

Amit S said...

hope chrome does not distinguish between laptop n pc ;)

Waterfox said...

Ha Ha Ha... more importantly, I hope it doesn't distinguish between believers and nonbelievers ;)