Google and Microsoft Battle Continues on Many Fronts

Google and Microsoft continue their battle with one another on a couple different fronts this week. Yesterday news broke that Amazon and A9 (owned by Amazon) are no longer carrying Google search results but rather results from Microsoft’s Live Windows. Then the New York Times runs an article reporting that Google is whining over the new Microsoft browser.

Threadwatch was the first to report that Amazon had replace Google with MSN’s Live Windows. A9, a search engine owned by Amazon quickly followed suite. While there are not many that actually use A9, there are a lot of people that use Amazon. Keep in mind that along with Google search results, Amazon would run AdWords, Google’s paid listings program. Now it is assumed that MSN’s AdCenter ads will replace AdWords. Therefore Google has not only lost a search partner but a distribution partner for AdWords as well. This is certainly a minor victory for Microsoft as they continue to battle Google’s dominance in search.

The other front consists of Google’s whining over Microsoft’s new browser. The New York Times reports that the new 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.

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search products at Google. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

Microsoft fires back and states that Google is misreading its intentions and actions. The default settings in the browser, Internet Explorer 7, are easy to change. The product was designed with consumers and many partners in mind — even though it might not be to the liking of Google, the leading search engine.

There is lots of coverage on these two items. I will list some below.