Fire up vi to change your search engine

Google is a bit upset to find it is not the default search engine in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 browser and is starting to talk antitrust. Safari, Firefox, Camino, and Opera all have Google built-in as default and sometimes the only search option.

“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.”

Want to change your default search engine on your Mac from Google to Yahoo? Fire up vi, because you’re going to have to dig for it. Mayer said “Google would support unfettered choice” on browsers such as Safari but so far no action or words of openness.

I installed beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7 last week. The first time I visited Google.com there was an arrow pointing to the search box and a message encouraging me to change my default search engine. I switched and it was pretty simple.

I’d like to see Google encourage openness in the applications where it is the only search option. Right now it seems like the company only complains when things aren’t in their favor, yet Yahoo! or emergent search companies can’t even compete as the best search solution for that search box.

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