I do agree with some of your points, Sam - I think it would be fine if Honda recommended a gas station and gave you a free gas credit to try it out (like many car manufacturers are doing today) - that’s a better comparison

I agree that MS started the bundling war - what I meant to say was that Google started the search-related bundling war. I just don’t understand how buying your way to be the default search engine in a browser is different than writing your own browser and bundling the default OS - I’m sure Microsoft wishes they could have just bought their way in!

First of all, to compare firefox’s including the google search box is a bit unfair. Google doesn’t own or operate firefox, although it does support it quite a bit, and the two seem like old chums. Also, google does not have an operating system. They are not bundling their stuff with software that is required to make your computer work (except in the case of dell I guess). For the most part, things that include google are optionally downloaded.

The argument for unfair advantage is a good one, and Microsoft would probably be saying the same thing if they were in google’s shoes.

Microsoft started the bundle war with windows 95. That’s why they were in court defending packaging IE with windows. That one move GAVE them the browswer market and killed netscape. Now they’re taking it one step further and bundling another software product, their search engine, out of the box.

in 1996 netscape was the best thing around, and it died quick because of Microsoft’s bundled software. Google is not the best thing around, and they are smart to be worried about Microsoft bundling competing software in their OS.

But I conceed that it’s hard to ask someone to play fair when it’s their own turf.

But if you buy a car from Honda, is it okay for Honda to tell you where you can buy your gas, where you can get your car serviced, what roads you can use, etc. etc.? Sure, it’s Hondas car and HOndas rules - but you gotta draw the line somewhere.