Microsoft, Yahoo Take a Swipe at Google

High-profile employees at Microsoft and Yahoo say rival Google’s complaints to authorities about a supposed unfair Microsoft practice is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

These are relatively new voices to the debate, which has been raging over the last few days in the blogosphere and elsewhere.

The rhetorical salvos result from Google’s reported complaints about Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer browser, Version 7, which comes with an embedded Microsoft search engine. One of the problems, Google says, is Microsoft makes it very difficult to swap out this search engine for one from a rival.

“We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default,” Marissa Meyer, Google vice president for search products, told the New York Times. “We believe users should choose.”

Jeremy Zawodny, a member of Yahoo’s technical development group, recently wrote that Google itself has entered into a deal with Dell Computers, so a “Googleized” browser comes standard in some Dell machines.

“Google bought their way into the default position,” Zawodny noted. “And now they’re upset because they can’t do the same with Internet Explorer? Cry me a river.”

Ditto, said Don Dodge, director of business development for Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team.

“It is pretty clear Google is whining and complaining about something it does itself with Firefox,” he wrote on his blog. “Remember, Google hired the founders and leaders of Firefox and pays money to Mozilla. So Google heavily influences what happens in both browsers.”

A Google representative didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.