Summary: DuckDuckGo and Yahoo! as search engines lead to Microsoft and provide watered down results for FOSS subjects

THERE is reason to be concerned about Microsoft turning Yahoo! Into a purple (ish) Microsoft front end.

There is a reason to be suspicious of DuckDuckGo as well. A closer look helps us understand that when Microsoft killed Yahoo! it basically eliminated another competitor — a malicious move which hurts the industry as a whole (destroying jobs, hurting customers, and so on). “DuckDuckGo needs to wash its hands of Bing,” wrote one of our readers earlier this evening. A recent article outlining how DuckDuckGo (DDG) gives Microsoft-generated (read: censored) results much of the time gave more room for discomfort and we are now seeing Microsoft play more anticompetitive games in search. Some months ago I was shown by a friend how his Windows/IE combination could not retain the choice of Google as a default search engine. He just couldn’t get it to work, so instead he was channelled into Microsoft and its front ends every time he started the Web browser. Design flaw? Surely not, it was clearly deliberate. According to another new testimonial, this is a widespread problem. To quote: “I recently had to install windows on a computer. This involved all the updates and bells and whistles. One of those is what some love to call internet exploder When starting up internet explorer for the first time it asks you to go through some hoops to set up some settings. If you were to just accept the default settings then you would be using all microsoft search engines. Naturally I did not want to use bling so I decided to choose a custom setting. I wanted Google to be my default search provider.

“I was a bit miffed that there was not a choice for Google right there. Instead I had to wait until all the settings were configured and microsoft opens up a page for me to choose the search provider I wanted. It would have been much easier if I could choose it right there. I could live with it though so I finished all the setting up of internet explorer and waited for it to open up the page so I could choose the Google search provider.

“Lo and behold the page opened up and right there in front of my eyes were a stack of icons of different search providers. The second one, with the Google colors and the Google ‘g’ and the name of Google.com seemed to me to be a good bet that this was the Google search provider I was wanting. I looked at all the other search providers and there was no other Google search provider listed. So it must be that one right? Wrong! Here is the page pointed to by the microsoft internet explorer setup program.”

Somebody ought to investigate this. Microsoft used tricks like these before and was forced off them. While the Microsoft boosters spin hard to pretend Microsoft honours competition, the company is just the same psychopath is has always been. Apathy towards Microsoft is a recipe for trouble, not peaceful coexistence. █

Summary: Microsoft racketeering comes to Casio and the regulators are catching up with Microsoft’s older abuses of the market, which rely on elimination of choice rather than outright extortion of the competitors that won (with Linux)

Microsoft is bleeding billions in areas that are not reported or under-reported (the company has billions in debt to repay). According to this timely new article, the ‘hidden’ part keeps getting uglier, with Bing now losing at the pace of $4,000,000,000 per year. Surely Microsoft will need to come up with a new business model and the mafia-like business model is what Microsoft chose when it signed a deal with Novell, which is why we cannot ignore Microsoft. It uses patent trolls to attack Linux (an antitrust violation) and builds anti-Linux legal instruments/cartels (which are an antitrust violation too).

According to this one Microsoft booster, the list of Linux companies Microsoft is extorting has just increased somewhat. “On September 20,” writes the booster, “Microsoft officials said that Microsoft and Casio Computer Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Casio Worldwide, had entered into a “a broad, multiyear patent cross-licensing agreement that, among other things, will provide Casio’s customers with patent coverage for their use of Linux in certain Casio devices.””

It is possibly only FAT but Microsoft states that it is “Linux” just to scare people. That’s based on what we recently learned from OIN. This whole thing is secret because if details were known, it would be easier to nail Microsoft for antitrust violations (see the Barnes & Nobel case). According to another one of today’s ZDNet blog pieces (masquerading as news), “Spain begins antitrust investigation into Microsoft,” but as we learned from Cablegate, US politicians are likely to help Microsoft dodge this. To quote the nature of this investigation:

Spain’s competition commission said on Tuesday it has opened an anti-trust investigation into Microsoft’s Spanish and Irish subsidiaries, on grounds that the company “blocked the sale by third parties” of PC software licences.

Though details at this stage are sketchy, it is thought that the watchdog believes that collected information could indicate a possible violation of Spanish competition regulations.

The investigation and ruling “must be completed within 18 months“, the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch reports.

How about they start going after Microsoft for patent extortion? There are clearly laws relating to racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and it’s a more urgent matter. █

Summary: The exodus of Microsoft managers picks up pace as more and more of them flee to other companies

In the previous post we saw the departure of Microsoft Corporate Vice President Linda Zecher. While researching her exit we also found out that, according to the ‘Microsoft press’, there are some other departures that escaped as much media attention although we managed to find appropriate links, the majority of which come from Microsoft boosters [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. According to Microsoft-friendly sources, one “left the company this week. Pell came to Microsoft in 2008 after Microsoft acquired search and natural-language company Powerset, where Pell was founder and CEO.” Microsoft also lost leaders of acquired companies such as TellMe. They don’t want to stay at Microsoft while the companies they built from scratch get ruined by Microsoft.

According to those same Microsoft-friendly sources, another important person is leaving, but they downplay the damage. “Mendlen isn’t completely severing his Microsoft ties,” they allege, “he has been appointed chief marketing officer of DevExpress, a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP). According to a statement from DevExpress, Mendlen will assume his new role on Sept. 10.” They say he did “evangelism”, which is Microsoft’s euphemistic term for AstroTurfing. Here are more articles about it [1, 2, 3].

We ought to stress that there are many more like them who left without us noticing because we no longer look at Microsoft closely. When we watched Microsoft closely, especially around 2009 and part of 2010, we compiled a list that shows the high pace of departure. Microsoft’s revolving doors are a carousel. Why are people escaping? How bad does it look from the inside? █

Summary: Microsoft eliminates choice and controls its opposition

MICROSOFT LOVES to kill competition because it’s a lot easier than to actually create competing/compelling products. History has many examples like this and the Yahoo hijack is one of the more recent ones. In the case of Yahoo, Microsoft resorted to proxy fights and other questionable tactics which include AstroTurfing. Well, after a history of systematic crime Microsoft realises that it has a well-deserved reputation problem, so it hides behind brands of other companies and keeps re-badging its search, trying to somehow trick people into using Microsoft thinking that they are fighting “bad”, “evil” Google. As we experimented with some alternative search engines today (or meta-search) we came to discover the above in DuckDuckGo (from screenshot), taking the user to this FAQ page. Does DuckDuckGo really want to market itself as a substitute to Google by sporting Microsoft? Suffice to say, this is very disappointing.

“Do not let Microsoft pretend to be of both sides, both open source and proprietary, both Windows and Linux, both Microsoft and the “anti-Microsoft”.”In similar news of interest, amid a lot of Microsoft “open source” PR this week (e.g. trying to portray the company as open and as a contributor to a kernel it attacks with lawsuits, among other things) we discovered that Microsoft is top sponsor (i.e. passing money for placement) in an open source “Think Tank”, as before. The sponsorship is for Microsoft and friends to shape opinion and position of its competition. Do not let Microsoft pretend to be of both sides, both open source and proprietary, both Windows and Linux, both Microsoft and the “anti-Microsoft”. It’s a known technique for removing choice. Coca Cola uses similar tactics to ensure it gets paid even by those who hate Coke. █

Summary: Microsoft workers who speak out against their employer these days

We wish to thank Jan for bringing to our attention this important item which we missed last month. It’s titled “Birth and Death of Microsoft Bing” and it is written by a B0ng employee, starting as follows:

I worked at Bing back in 2008 and I’ve seen it at the peak of its power. This story is about an amazing group of technologists, where were on a task of solving the hardest problem in the world – Attacking Google at it’s home territory. Let me say that again: Attacking a market incumbent on an area of it’s core strength – It’s hardest in technology companies. Time and again people have tried doing it and failed, and it’s not just about the money.

A blogger who supports us, Penguin Pete, has also just declared that “Microsoft’s Monopoly Is Now So Bad That Even Microsoft Employees Complain”, citing Microsoft staff:

I’ve never seen anything like this story, and I don’t think there’s ever been a precedent in history. A story summarized at Electronista seems to show a Microsoft employee complaining that the company actually has smaller monopolies within itself destroying it from the inside. What can happen when a single corporation does the closest thing to enslaving the entire human race that any entity has ever done and goes unchecked, unchallenged, and uncontrollable for so long? Its empire fragments into a bunch of warring sub-monopolies, that’s what.

To make matters worse, only a minority of Microsoft employees approves Ballmer's reign, despite all the Kool-Aid. These are all signs of a rogue company. █

Summary: Groklaw accuses Dr. Ben Edelman of being a front for Microsoft as Google carries on stealing Microsoft’s thunder

BEN Edelman — like Richard Edelman — is accused of engaging in Microsoft PR. The former, however, has nothing to do with Edelman the firm, which supports the most vocal anti-Google attack dog (called “Consumer Watchdog”). “I encourage you to go to Bing and search for “maps”. Bing maps is first, then Yahoo, then Google,” Groklaw writes regarding this new article. “The selective attacks on Google are just plain silly at best. Given Edelman’s resume, I think one must consider agendas, just as one would on reading the “independent” studies that say just what Microsoft desires. So I’d redo the headline to read: My Message to Microsoft: Spend More on Products and Less on FUD/PR.”

Groklaw refers to the new article which says:

In mid February, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expressed pride in Google employee Wael Ghonim’s brave struggle against the autocratic Mubarak regime to establish political transparency in Egypt. “We are very, very proud of what Wael and that group was able to do in Egypt,” Schmidt said in Barcelona. But what Schmidt needs to do now is apply Ghonim’s views about political transparency to Google’s own search business.

[...]

Last November, when the European Commission launched its investigation, the Harvard Business School professor, Benjamin Edelman, published a research paper entitled “Hard-Coding Bias in Google Algorithmic Search Results” which proves that Google has “hard-coded its own links to appear at the top of algorithmic search results.”

[...]

Google’s bias isn’t just limited to finance and health. In a January 2011 paper, “Measuring Bias in Organic Web Search,” written with Harvard Business School doctoral candidate Benjamin Lockwood, Edelman found that Google listed its own map service as the first result when a user queries “maps.” It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that Edelman and Lockwood discovered that 86% of map searches conducted on Google end up with the user clicking on Google Maps.

For those who are too lazy to read Edelman’s CV, it says: “Microsoft adCenter (Harvard Business School Case 908-049) (2008) with Peter Coles”

At Nokia, the anti-Ogg person had also worked for Microsoft before he uttered negative things about Ogg. As for Edelman, his top “Programming Experience” is “Microsoft Visual Basic (14+ years experience)”. Readers can decide what to make of it. Watch what he writes in his blog this month (context and more background information regarding the said incident [1, 2]).

Microsoft is afraid of Google not just because Google advances Linux; Google also goes for the jugular of Microsoft’s #1 cash cow, with news like this in recent days:

Google Pushes Cloud Connect as Office Alternative

Cloud Connect first became available in a test version last November. It’s based on technology the company acquired as part of its purchase of DocVerse, a startup created by two former Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) product managers. Cloud Connect is designed to help users of Word, PowerPoint and Excel move to Google Docs by giving them the same Office interface with the added collaborative features that Docs offers.

Joe Wilcox chose the headline “Google launches its next assault on ‘cumbersome, legacy’ Microsoft Office”

In the race to offer Microsoft Office functionality in the cloud, Google has beaten its rival getting a product out of development beta and into production release. Today Google announced global availability of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, which went into beta late last year. The technology builds off Google acquisition of DocVerse.

Microsoft has many reasons to be terrified of Google, whose market value nearly exceeds that of Microsoft right now (Apple’s is already way ahead). We also know, based on articles from 2011, that Microsoft pays academics for propaganda. █

Summary: Amidst allegations and reports that Fox misleads the public on purpose [1], a close look is taken at GOP agenda [2, 3] and the probable reason for the anti-Google vendetta

Yesterday we wrote about Murdoch's role in Microsoft's ruthless fight against Google. Murdoch’s role in it goes a long way back [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14] and it’s no secret that Murdoch meets Gates when he hangs out with Microsoft executives and other billionaires like himself, including those who distort the record about climate science and those who run PR/investment operations disguised as a charity (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett). A reader informed us that Glenn Beck’s recent anti-Google rhetoric may have something to do with his boss, Rupert Murdoch. There is also this new article about it in alternet.org — an article which is summarised as follows:

Beck has a Google conspiracy theory. What he doesn’t tell you is that his boss, Rupert Murdoch, has it in for the search-engine giant.

Microsoft has already destroyed Yahoo! and it then took its search userbase. It’s a bit like Nokia; Microsoft would rather destroy companies and take their market share because it cannot create something better. History is full of many examples like this, e.g. Borland, WordPerfect, Netscape. Yahoo! keeps sacking employees just like Nokia in the post-Elop era [1, 2, 3, 4].

Truthfully, we do not endorse Google for its proprietary search services, but for those who do not trust Google, here is another decent option:

Do you want a better, more secure, more private search engine? Give Duckduckgo a try. I’ve been using it almost exclusively for several months now. It’s great. Also, their !Bang feature is awesome and extremely useful.

I tried it earlier this year and I was pleased. But it would be nice to have a truly free/libre algorithm on which to build and combine many search engines of a vast scale. What we have today is insufficient. █

References from the latest news:

1. FCC investigating Fox over its operation of WWOR-TV

   The Federal Communications Commission is investigating News Corp.’s Fox to determine if the company misled the regulatory agency with regards to the operations of its television station WWOR-TV in Seacaucus, N.J.

   In a letter sent to Fox on Thursday, the FCC said it needs to determine if Fox and WWOR intentionally provided “material factual information that was incorrect” or is guilty of “intentionally omitting material information.”

2. In Defense of Mockery

   I read with profound weariness a piece in Salon by Michael Lind entitled Hey, liberals: Time to give the Beck bashing a rest. Lind is apparently under the impression that (a) Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews engage in “constant mockery” of bloviating right-wing demagogues such as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, and that (b) this would somehow be a bad thing, because it is likely to backfire on “liberals.”

   He could not be more wrong.

3. What the Right-wing Assault on Women, Unions, the Environment, Health Care and PBS Is All About

   The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women’s rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting, and on and on.

Summary: “Parliament wants to dump Microsoft Silverlight” according to Computer Weekly (UK), more Facebook-Microsoft integration is reported

According to this article from Mark Ballard, the UK continues walking away from Silver Lie. This time it’s the parliament:

Saying you can only watch Parliamentary debates on the internet if you have a computer compatible with Microsoft is like saying you can only enter the House of Lords if you shop on Savile Row.

The Parliamentary Information Communication and Technology Office (PICT) has therefore stalled its rollout of Silverlight, Microsoft’s latest multimedia technology, while it considers if there is a better way.

PICT’s reports on the matter, which we are publishing here today, reveal why PICT is reviewing its relationship with Microsoft. It is seeking to increase public participation in the democratic process, and break the limitations that proprietary software and broadcast licences place on Parliament’s use of its own recordings.

In less fortunate news, the partly Microsoft-funded Facebook (Microsoft tried to buy the whole company) not only supports or promotes OOXML and B0ng; it now also increases its sharing of personal data with Microsoft, but there’s a snag:

Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows and IE right now. Microsoft says the approach for the new version was “make the stuff you do every day online easier,” hence the integration with Facebook, search and email. One notable difference in the new version is that the search box is smack in the center of the toolbar. Search history, suggestions and deep links are all marked distinctly in the box (by color) to help users search faster.

“The better to track what you do, my dears, and what Google does, I assume,” wrote Groklaw about it. Yes, IE/B0ng/Microsoft also sniffs people’s usage of Google [1, 2, 3]; it’s spyware. █

Summary: Microsoft is bribing schoolteachers to recommend B0ng (Microsoft’s Google scraper); pro-Microsoft decision at the German Foreign Office “smells like bribery” says a developer, Mirco “MacSlow” Müller

“Microsoft pays teachers to promote Bing to their students,” writes a reader of ours who links to this new page. Bribes for search market share (buying the market rather than earning it) are nothing new from Microsoft [1, 2], but this is an all-time low, adding to the Gates Foundation‘s intervention in education for its own selfish needs and bribing of professors (we made a mirror after the original report had vanished).

According to this new blog post about the German Foreign Office going back to Windows, there is again a suspicion of Microsoft bribes and its source is quite reliable:

This smells like bribery in action if you ask me.

[...]

From reading summaries on the real reasons, it apparently came down to drivers (for printers and scanners), which they probably bought at Lidl or Aldi (german discount-chains), instead of spending a minute or two on the web researching what devices are properly supported. Another issue was educating staff about different office-applications and making them deal with a slightly different UI-layout *rolling.eyes* WTF… after ten years they could not adapt to something new!? Who are they trying to kid?

This is leads to an terrifying conclusion. IT-staff and clerks working at our foreign offices are less computer literate than my parents and friends (all non-geeks). Or the other way around, people like my parents and friends could work at the foreign offices and help saving valuable tax-money. (ok this last paragraph is stretching it a bit far, but you get my point)

As we showed here before (linking to reports from the commercial press), Steve Ballmer tried to sort of bribe Munich after it had declared plans to move to GNU/Linux [1, 2]. At Microsoft, “bribe” is not a dirty word (although it typically gets euphemised); history teaches that it’s just a business strategy. See our EDGI pages (leaked Microsoft documents). █

Summary: Google responds to MPEG-LA’s call for arms and Microsoft depends on Google which it daemonises in an attempt to distract from its own mischief

OVER the past year we wrote many posts about WebM and MPEG-LA, most recently in relation to Nokia's malicious past role, namely backing MPEG-LA, and this patent troll’s call for patents to extort/sue Google with. It is widely publicised by now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Miguel de Icaza tells Microsoft Florian: “They made a “call for patents” because they have not found anything that WebM infringes.”

“Harassing Google (and Android/Linux) has grown to be a Microsoft habit or a hobby.”Stephen Shankland from CNET quotes Google’s official response: “MPEG LA has alluded to a VP8 pool since WebM launched–this is nothing new. The Web succeeds with open, community-developed innovation, and the WebM Project brings the same principles to Web video. The vast majority of the industry supports free and open development, and we’re in the process of forming a broad coalition of hardware and software companies who commit to not assert any IP claims against WebM. We are firmly committed to the project and establishing an open codec for HTML5 video.” The same statement can be found in other articles too.

One of MPEG-LA’s biggest backers is Microsoft of course. The embarrassing situation involving Microsoft’s B0ng as a spy and scraper [1, 2] of Google, which led to much bogus debate, definitely shows who’s fighting for progress in some areas and who is harming society. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has published the new essay “Lies, damned lies and search engines” where he addresses the issue:

Bad Microsoft! Bad! No biscuit for you!

If Microsoft were a dog, I’d be scolding it for its latest foolishness. It turns out that rather than searching the Internet on its own, it’s been riding the coattails of Google. This isn’t just a theory. Google set up a clever trap, and Microsoft’s search engineers fell right into it.

Harassing Google (and Android/Linux) has grown to be a Microsoft habit or a hobby. It’s rather striking however. Even Microsoft cannot help use Google and Linux internally, so Microsoft in some sense depends on their existence. █

Summary: Groklaw responds to some of Microsoft’s latest attacks on software freedom and anti-competitive practices, especially where Google is concerned

Microsoft is poisoning Google just like it generally poisons the Free/open source software (FOSS) community, using software patents and more. In relation to the article “Microsoft tries undoing Chrome’s H.264 omission,” Groklaw writes: “How do we translate this? That they want to attack VP8 with patents they dig up somehow and thus try to shove forward their own patent-encumbered offering or at least get paid no matter what?”

“[T]hey want to attack VP8 with patents they dig up somehow and thus try to shove forward their own patent-encumbered offering or at least get paid no matter what?”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawWell, Groklaw seems to have taken great interest in this (so have we [1, 2]), especially given patent litigation against Google as of late, especially from Microsoft and allies of Microsoft. Groklaw also writes a response to spin from Dean Hachamovitch from Microsoft (IE team). “How would a promise from Microsoft alone do any good,” Groklaw asks. “Read the history of JPEG if you think that any of Microsoft’s suggestions would guarantee that no idiot will show up with a patent granted by the crazed USPTO and start suing people, no matter what anyone does. Software patents are the problem, and there is no solution other than to get rid of them. And “reasonable licensing terms” are unreasonable in that it breaks the openness of the Internet. Microsoft would like to pretend that the GPL doesn’t matter, and that the big proprietary guys can just ignore it and turn the Internet into a proprietized, closed environment that you can’t enter and enjoy unless you pay. And I don’t think you can claim to be “agnostic” if your solutions enforce acceptance of H.264 by one method or another.”

While Google makes advances, Microsoft is in search of a new cash cow or common carrier and search may be one such carrier because of advertising. To Microsoft, all that’s left now are patents and cheating because nothing else has worked after years of billions in spendings down the drain. Recently we found out that Bing is ripping off Google search results [1, 2]. Groklaw covered many articles about it (a true fixation), along with commentary. This whole affair helps shatter Microsoft’s cases against Google (by proxy) — cases that claim Google’s results are unfair or not “neutral”. “So if we were to read that some entity filed a complaint against Google with some regulatory body,” writes Groklaw, “demanding that Google reveal its algorithms as one form of relief, and we learn that Microsoft is behind the entity in the shadows somewhere, what might that tell us?

“So I guess it’s official. Google’s algorithms are better than Bing’s. At least Microsoft seems to think so. Say, is this some kind of copyright violation? Trade dress? Violation of your privacy? Hmm. Deep thoughts begin…”

“So I guess it’s official. Google’s algorithms are better than Bing’s.”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawIt also turned out that Microsoft was tracking users who use Google. Nice, eh? So it’s not just a Google ripoff but also a privacy violation. “And speaking for myself,” writes Groklaw, “I don’t want my search data shared with anybody. But even if I did, I wouldn’t want them used to copy off of Google’s paper, so to speak.”

Here is the source of Google’s allegation. “The live forum where Google’s Matt Cutts made his announcement about Bing copying Google’s results is still going on,” Groklaw calls it. “The link will take you there.”

Then, regarding the news headline “Microsoft’s Bing Uses Google Results – And Denies It,” Groklaw writes: “It should stop if only because now it’s been demonstrated that a competitor can skew your results into Never Never Land. It was a one-time experiment, to demonstrate the copying, but any search engine team now knows that copying isn’t reliable.”

“It was a one-time experiment, to demonstrate the copying, but any search engine team now knows that copying isn’t reliable.”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawMicrosoft started a fake controversy to distract from the fiasco. It’s truly pathetic. Groklaw responds: “And who made that happen? Seriously. How dirty does this get? And if I might ask the next logical questions, if Microsoft really believed Google manipulated search results, would it copy them? Maybe someone needs to investigate Microsoft for instigating specious investigations?”

Microsoft booster Harry McCracken (he got a free laptop from Microsoft) played along with the fake controversy as he called it a “squabble” in the headline. Groklaw responds with: “I wouldn’t call it a squabble, personally. I’d call it an ethical issue. And that’s why Microsoft can’t understand why people care, I suspect.”

Kym McNicholas pretty much agreed with Groklaw when she published “Microsoft’s Nonsense Response To Google” and claimed: “Google, this week, accused Microsoft of stealing its results. NBC Bay Area’s PressHere scheduled Google’s man behind search, Dr. Amit Singhal, to be on this week’s broadcast with host Scott McGrew. I was one of the guest interviewer’s along with Mashable’s co-editor Ben Parr. Singhal explained to us how he and his team discovered that Bing may be leveraging Google’s search results. Microsoft, whom McGrew says has failed to follow-up on scheduling an appearance on his show, instead decided to send him a taped response to Google’s accusations. It’s worth watching the show this Sunday at 9am PT on NBC Bay Area to hear that. If you prefer, here is the segment from the show, below…”

In one of the spin articles, titled “Microsoft says Google used click fraud to orchestrate Bing Sting,” the author says that “Microsoft is now accusing Google of using a form of click fraud to set up its Bing Sting, a stunt unveiled by the search giant at the Farsight 2011 tech conference in Silicon Valley.” Groklaw sarcastically replies with: “I see Microsoft is really, really sorry.”

Microsoft’s blame games are a classic and very familiar game. The accuser from Google, Matt Cutts, wrote about this in his blog:

I didn’t expect that Microsoft would deny the claims so strongly. Yusuf Mehdi’s post says “We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop.”

Given the strength of the “We do not copy Google’s results” statements, I think it’s fair to line up screenshots of the results on Google that later showed up on Bing…

Murdoch’s press has the rather deceiving headline “Search Engine Slap Fight: Microsoft Denies Cheating, Blames Google”. Microsoft says: “In simple terms, Google’s ‘experiment’ was rigged to manipulate Bing search results through a type of attack also known as click fraud. That’s right, the same type of attack employed by spammers on the web to trick consumers and produce bogus search results.”

“And Bing didn’t catch it,” writes Groklaw. “That’s the bottom line to me, that Bing didn’t realize that the results were ridiculous. That makes me not trust Bing. Full stop.”

All the above is another sign among many signs of decline at Microsoft. Katherine Noyes from IDG published the article “Cheating Accusations Highlight Microsoft’s Decline”. In it she wrote:

For those who missed it, Google apparently conducted a “sting” operation recently by rigging a few select searches to display specific pages in the search results in its own search engine. It then told 20 employees to run the searches on their computers using Internet Explorer with “Suggested Sites” and the Bing toolbar enabled. Lo and behold, after a few weeks the searches began producing the same results on Bing.

[...]

There’s no doubt Microsoft was once an innovative player. Whatever your preference in operating systems or office software suites, for example, there’s no denying that Microsoft made a number of smart and innovative moves to create its current position of market dominance in both arenas.

Since then, however, the company has been on the decline. In the mobile arena, for example, its performance has been too little, too late, as exemplified by the woefully inadequate Windows Phone 7. Rather than innovating on quality, the company now resorts to the industry equivalent of dirty pool.

In defense of both Windows and Microsoft Office, for example, Microsoft has long been one of the primary sources of FUD about competing free and open source alternatives. CEO Steve Ballmer notoriously has called Linux “a cancer,” for instance, and the company has made patently obvious that it fears competition from the open source contender.

More recently, Microsoft created an anti-OpenOffice.org video–still up on YouTube–that amounted to nothing more than a smear campaign against the competition.

Novell’s gift of patents to Microsoft is also mentioned. Fortunately, the CPTN deal is coming under regulatory fire^* and we found only 2 articles about it, one of which from SCO booster and anti-Linux activist O’Gara. The other one came from The H and just like the FSF, Michael Tiemann from the OSI wrote a statement giving credit to the US Department of Justice: “The Open Source Initiative commends the US Department of Justice for taking this important step to promote innovation by issuing a second request and deepening the investigation of CPTN’s acquisition of Novell’s patents. As we have stated, the history is clear: patents have been—and are likely to be—used by CPTN and its members to create fear, uncertainty and doubt concerning open source software, raise competitors costs and threaten customers. We trust and hope that following a thorough investigation, the DoJ will impose whatever measures are necessary to ensure that CPTN does not harm the commercial open source development model or market competition.”

The closure of Kin Studio — just like the closure of other projects/units (see our list of dead products from Microsoft) — is not even denied or spun by Microsoft boosters, so Noyes’s assertion that there is a “Microsoft decline” seems to be acknowledged quite widely. Microsoft is just playing dirty now, so people need to watch and report misbehaviour. Google performed an experiment to catch Microsoft red-handed and it should be commended — not reprimanded — for it. █
_____
^* The other part of the deal, which involved AttachMSFT [sic], was mentioned in Murdoch’s circles and the vulture fund was recently mentioned in Reuters which said: “Elliott Advisors has nearly 6 percent stake in Actelion”. It also said: “Elliott often takes on the role of an activist shareholder, and last year sought to buy business software company Novell (NOVL.O) after building an 8.5 percent stake in the company [ID:nSGE68E0IU].”

Summary: Bong [sic] is being abandoned by its managers just when a major scandal hits the press and some believe that Google might sue Microsoft

The Bong [sic] scandal we wrote about last night (see links in the comments too) is very hotly debated right now, although not as hotly debated as Egypt. Simon Phipps says that based on Microsoft’s statement, “Bing admits to using Google data, spins it as no big deal” (“Bing Admits to Copying Google Results,” says LXNews). He also redents a message which says Microsoft got “caught with pants down, argues that waddling with pants pooled around legs is perfectly decent behavior” (what a graphical analogy). Microsoft could be sued by Google, some people think. Wired Magazine runs the headline “Google Catches Bing Copying; Microsoft Says ‘So What?’”

Google accused Microsoft Tuesday of copying its search results, an accusation to which Microsoft responded to with a blase, “So What?”

Google’s anti-webspam engineer Matt Cutts accused Microsoft on stage at a Bing-sponsored event of copying Google’s results by watching what people search for using the Internet Explorer 8 toolbar and click on at Google.com, and then mimicking those results on Bing.com.

Several Microsoft search executives have already moved to eBay and here falls another:

Microsoft casualties rise as eBay snags big Bing exec

[...]

Steve Ballmer, captain of the S.S. Microsoft, is working hard to assure the world that all is well with his mighty vessel. But with so many top officers jumping ship, it’s tough not to suspect that the hull is badly breached and the old girl is taking on water.

eBay is probably not going to receive the “Yahoo! treatment” as a consequence of all these defections because there is little that eBay can do to serve Microsoft, especially given its business model. █

Summary: Google alleges that underneath Bong [sic] there is just a lot of scraping of Google search engine results pages (SERPs)

Microsoft copying others is not news at all. There are so many examples of it, some more blatant than others (not to mention many products that are simply rebadged “Microsoft” or get acquired by Microsoft). But the following new accusation suggests that Microsoft is simply ripping off Google not by copying what they do but by literally copying their output, their product, almost verbatim:

Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this.

As a result of the apparent monitoring, Bing’s relevancy is potentially improving (or getting worse) on the back of Google’s own work. Google likens it to the digital equivalent of Bing leaning over during an exam and copying off of Google’s test.

“I’ve spent my career in pursuit of a good search engine,” says Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow who oversees the search engine’s ranking algorithm. “I’ve got no problem with a competitor developing an innovative algorithm. But copying is not innovation, in my book.”

Giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt for the time being, Tech Radar asks, “Is Bing copying Google’s search results?”

Bing has come under fire after Google claims that the Microsoft-owned search engine has been plagiarising Google’s own search results.

Google has been running a ‘sting operation’ to try and catch Bing in the act of copying Google’s search results and thinks it has succeeded.

Laurel says: “If Bing wins the market and Google goes under, THEN what do they do if Google isn’t around to copy?”

5 years ago, Steve Jobs said that Microsoft “spend[s] over five billion dollars on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple.” He probably did not mean “copy” in the sense that we see above. Assuming the allegations turn out to be truthful, Microsoft has gone way too far in this case. It has turned Yahoo! search into a Bong [sic] skin, which is in turn just a front end to Google, at least on the face of it. No shame, eh? And speaking of Yahoo!, Microsoft blames Vista Phony 7 [sic] failure on this marionette it got. And if that’s not bad enough, watch what Microsoft adds to its allegedly scraped-from-Google search results: it adds anti-features to them, essentially introducing more surveillance and spying on users, then bragging about it:

Researchers from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research have found that cursor movements and cursor hovers can detect the relevance of a search result and whether a user may abandon the search.

Whose results are these anyway? Is Bong [sic] just a massive ripoff of Google? And if so, why ever use Bong? To be tracked by Microsoft, even at the level of mousing? By the way, Microsoft makes no computer mice, it just sticks its logo/brand on some. Skin indeed! █

Summary: A news report about Yahoo says that “Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”

AS we have shown here before, Yahoo’s CEO is a former ally of Microsoft and a lot of former Microsoft executives took positions of power inside Yahoo. Now, this new report identified yesterday suggests that Yahoo! as a search engine might soon be history as Microsoft grabs its userbase globally, not just in north America. “The not-so-bright spots were led by a -12% drop in quarterly revenue and the announcement of additional job cuts at the company,” quotes a reader, adding: “Yahoo’s transition to combining its search-advertising business with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) gets the blame for the revenue drop. Company executives predict though that the move will save money in the long run because Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”

Mind the part which says “Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”

“She will never pull out of the deal with MS to use Bing which killing Yahoo.”
      –ChipsThis suggests that they will be channeling everyone to Bong [sic] sooner or later, just like Facebook and other ‘sock-puppets’ of Microsoft. “And there you have,” said one reader, “MS deal with Yahoo gets the blame. But Yahoo’s CEO, a second runner up to Ballmer in most incompetent CEO, is like a Trojan MS employee.”

“Yahoo is a Bing skin,” Ryan alleged.

“Yahoo wasn’t always a Bìng skin, though,” MinceR insisted, “they existed before Microsoft went all “me too” on the Internet” (and may soon get all of Yahoo’s hard-earned search traffic).

“Carol is running Yahoo into the ground,” said Chips. “She will never pull out of the deal with MS to use Bing which killing Yahoo. To do so would be to Yahoo’s benefit, but would probably lose her the job. Which like Ballmer, she is going to lose anyway in time. Carol is just another Trojan.” █

Summary: Rogue site harms people’s computers by installing “a toolbar and chang[ing] their search provider and home page to Bing.”

Included in the logs just posted is a story we only posted in daily links due to lack of time. The short story is that Microsoft is in the midst of another Bong [sic] scandal and shortly after it was revealed Microsoft retreated from it:

Is Facebook’s third largest advertiser really a site that tries to trick people into switching to Bing? Apparently not. Still, Bing’s not happy with the tactics and is ending its relationship with the publisher. The site, Make-My-Baby.com, now appears to have gone down. But earlier today, it was suggesting that people needed a plug-in to use it — one that would install a toolbar and change their search provider and home page to Bing. The site had allowed people to create baby characters….OK, I have some more answers from Bing. Make-My-Baby was an affiliate of Zugo….Bing also confirmed that it continues to have a relationship with Zugo. That also means that all the people who had their pages changed by Make-My-Baby will continue to get redirected to the benefit of both Zugo and Bing, as best I can tell, despite the fact that they were obtained in a way that Bing disagrees with.

Our readers did not all buy Microsoft’s story and to quote last night’s conversation about it:

DaemonFC	I guess they got sick of all the “Why doesn’t Last.FM work?” posts	22:32
oiaohm	Don’t worry its normally only temp.  MinceR	22:33
oiaohm	First stage create more jobs than what is required.	22:34
oiaohm	Second stage restruct the departments because they are  too expensive.	22:34
oiaohm	Third stage sacked too many todo the jobs.	22:34
oiaohm	then return to first stage.	22:35
oiaohm	This is kinda a never ending goverment cycle.	22:35
–> cubezzz has joined this channel (~cubeman@maxhost.org).		22:35
–> tessier has joined this channel (~treed@mail.copilotco.com).		22:35
–> TRIdentica has joined this channel (~twitfolk@216.105.40.114).		22:35
–> TRT has joined this channel (~twitfolk@216.105.40.114).		22:35
oiaohm	“first time the FCC has ever allowed discrimination on the Internet”  Boy people have short memories.	22:36
oiaohm	Computserv anyone.	22:36
MinceR	CompuServe isn’t internet, afaik	22:37
oiaohm	It was a wrapper over the internet that was used to restrict access.	22:37
–> twitter has joined this channel (~pbj@173-17-111-185.client.mchsi.com).		22:40
twitter	Read Write web notices that a toolbar scam is part of Bing market share gain.  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest_advertiser _is_a_bing_affilia.php	22:41
TechrightsBot-tr	Title:  Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates)  .::. Size~: 74.46 KB	22:41
twitter	That and the forced default on cell phones, new computers inflicted with Windows, etc.	22:42
oiaohm	twitter: Problem is I cannot see who is behind that.	22:43
MinceR	duh	22:44
MinceR	it’s m$	22:44
twitter	you really can’t tell where hundreds of thousands of dollars for a make_my_baby.com scam comes from?	22:44
MinceR	they’re still struggling to get people to use bìng	22:44
twitter	no one would put up that kind of money on their own.	22:44
twitter	It had to come from Microsoft.	22:44
MinceR	they used to pay people to make them use whatever bìng happened to be called at the time	22:45
MinceR	this is a different approach to the same goal	22:45
oiaohm	I have not looked close enough at that.	22:45
oiaohm	to check if the 3rd biggest has hidden any other back doors.	22:46
twitter	this one hides in the fine print and the usual “you need a plugin to do this”	22:46
oiaohm	Exactly what else is in the plugin twitter	22:46
twitter	they are obvious frauds, ohm.	22:46
oiaohm	I know they are frauds	22:46
oiaohm	But are they are bot net master as well.	22:46
twitter	so there’s no telling what kind of malware they push	22:47
oiaohm	Really the total mix of malware will give us a better clue who they are.	22:47
twitter	just like there’s no telling what Microsoft sends back to themselves via Vista and Windows 7 encrypted communications	22:48
twitter	It’s someone who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Bing.  They might also be a bot herder but that is irrelevant and the Bing issue is proved.	22:49
<– abeNd-org has left this server (Quit: Leaving.).		22:49
twitter	Microsoft disowned them, as they do all of their scape goats.	22:49
DaemonFC	Compuserve was an AOL-type service, walled garden	22:50
DaemonFC	they both added internet access later	22:50
DaemonFC	then AOL bought Compuserve	22:50
DaemonFC	for a while, the Compuserve browser was based on Gecko, not IE/Trident	22:50
DaemonFC	I think it went back to IE though	22:50
DaemonFC	there was a beta version of AOL that used Gecko	22:51
oiaohm	AOL netscape	22:51
twitter	Microsoft Software, so bad the company has to pay people to use it.	22:51
DaemonFC	no, the AOL client	22:51
DaemonFC	there was a beta you had to be invited to	22:51
DaemonFC	it used Gecko as the AOL browser’s renderer	22:51
twitter	AOL bought Netscape, it was unnatural for them to not use the browser.	22:52
oiaohm	When AOL bought netscape they did a hybred.	22:52
oiaohm	Gecko trident	22:52
DaemonFC	they never really used Netscape much	22:52
oiaohm	In the AOL browser and in netscape	22:52
oiaohm	What was basically the same thing.	22:52
twitter	It was gone in the blink of an eye, then they fired the developers.	22:52
DaemonFC	the Windows version uses IE/Trident and the Mac version uses Webkit	22:53
DaemonFC	way back when, they used their own rendering engine though	22:53
twitter	DaemonFC, uses AOL on Mac?  Wow!	22:53
MinceR	lol	22:53
DaemonFC	yes, it has Topspeed Technology to make my 56k modem go VROOM	22:54
DaemonFC	uh huh	22:54
DaemonFC		22:54
MinceR	that can’t be good for the modem :>	22:54
twitter	zzzzoooooommmmmm	22:54
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twitter	have fun with the Bing news.  That search engine is not going anywhere soon.	22:55
<– twitter has left this channel.		22:55
* DaemonFC throws a Winmodem at Mincer		22:55
* MinceR parries it with a BFS		22:55
[Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [boycottnovell/@boycottnovell] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin		22:57
[Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [schestowitz/@schestowitz] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin #vista		22:57
TechrightsBot-tr	Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB	22:57
oiaohm	http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTAwNQ  I guess you have both seen this.	22:57
TechrightsBot-tr	Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB	22:57
TechrightsBot-tr	Title: [Phoronix] ULatencyD Enters The Linux World .::. Size~: 16.74 KB	22:57
MinceR	oh, according to “How Does This Work?”, it could be independent of m$	22:57
MinceR	since it benefits Zugo as well	22:58
MinceR	via affiliate commissions	22:58
oiaohm	MinceR: link	22:58
MinceR	same article	22:59
MinceR	( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest _advertiser_is_a_bing_affilia.php )	22:59
TechrightsBot-tr	Title:  Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates)  .::. Size~: 74.46 KB	22:59
MinceR	there’s a sidebar titled “How Does This Work?” on that page	23:00

So what do you think? Innocent or damage control? █

Summary: Google is still under pressure from Microsoft’s firing line of existing and former employees, as well as existing business partners

MICROSOFT cannot compete anymore. To be fair, it never could compete, not fairly at least, but this time it is ever more evident. In Japan, for example, Microsoft filed a formal complaint against Google, but it was all in vain, obviously.

“Japan’s FTC Approves Yahoo Japan/Google Search Partnership, Despite Microsoft’s Objections” says one headline that we found (there are more [1, 2], along with suspicious case of possible entryism), so Microsoft’s attempts to interfere with a rare Google-Yahoo! tie — having done this with hired AstroTurfers a couple of years ago — were just a waste of valuable time.

ficial….! Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689 | ETR:YOJ) has received clearance from Japan’s FTC to use Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) search technology. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) had protested the move to the Fair Trade Commission, but the ruling was made public yesterday. Yahoo is just a minority shareholder and could not block the move, despite its own competitive deal with Bing in the U.S.

Microsoft’s major losses in this area are still being noted by the press. The company loses around $3 billion per year on its Web efforts alone. It must run after Google on the Web because Google runs after Microsoft in the operating systems and office suites space. Microsoft’s plan is basically — to use Steve Ballmer’s words as quoted from memory and published in the Sydney Morning Herald — to “f—ing bury that guy [Google's CEO], I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f—ing kill Google.”

Microsoft uses a variety of other companies to incite regulators against Google. As TechDirt puts it, “Expedia Against ‘Search Discrimination’… Unless It Gets To Do The Discriminating”. To quote further: “That’s because Expedia is a leading member of a lobbying group called FairSearch, which was set up mainly to protest Google’s planned acquisition of ITA.”

For those who don’t know, Expedia is derived from Microsoft. To quote an old article (from 1999), “Microsoft Spins Off Expedia With IPO” (headline) and “Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Corp. is busy reorganizing itself in a major way without the government’s intervention.”

Why can’t Microsoft compete fairly? It’s far from the only alleged complaint by proxy. Jeff Atwood, who used to work at Microsoft and now runs a popular blog, is trying to give Google antitrust trouble too on the face of it.

“Why can’t Microsoft compete fairly? It’s far from the only alleged complaint by proxy.”The former leadership of Yahoo! is mostly gone as Microsoft’s hijack of Yahoo continues to deepen and many projects die as a result. The revamp is overdue, it’s hard to believe it will fix Yahoo, and there are more layoffs as “Yahoo Prepares To Cut Up To 5% Of Work Force, Say Sources” (more in [1, 2, 3]). What an utter failure of ‘free’ markets if one company can shatter its competitor in this nefarious way, leading to a sort of advertising/search cartel at competition’s expense [1, 2, 3], which benefits nobody but Microsoft. Ask too is collapsing and “Former Yahooligan Fiorentini joins Microsoft Australia” says one report among several from Australia [1, 2]. “Ex-Yahoo exec Ku joins Microsoft” says the Microsoft booster from Seattle, so it becoming like the same company with high-level staff swaps, which carry on at a steady pace. It sure seems like foul play.

Microsoft’s business partner comScore [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] meanwhile spreads the dubious claim that “Microsoft’s Bing [is] growing faster than Google” (undisclosed conflict of interest here) and it is widely reported without scepticism [1, 2], despite comScore at one point admitting that its numbers are bunk. This same firm which has clients whose situation wrt the competition it charts without disclosure is also quoted on other meters [1, 2, 3], yet almost nobody — if anyone at all — bothers to look critically at the science behind those numbers. What ever happened to investigative journalism? That’s why people increasingly turn to outlets like Wikileaks, which prides itself in what it calls “scientific journalism” (citing original, raw sources). █

–Bill Gates

Original cartoon

Summary: An analysis of Microsoft’s ongoing political and legal attacks on Google; a glimpse at Microsoft’s Fog Computing gameplay, which leads to unprecedented levels of lock-in and is a reactionary strategy amid Google’s rise to power

MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE are fighting over people’s data, including their communication (data going down the wires, not just data stored locally or in Fog Computing). Microsoft advocates the use of Windows, whereas Google advocates GNU/Linux with more Free software components inside the stack, e.g. Apache and Python. Neither company is “good” or “evil”; like in many wars, both sides can be “evil”, but it’s all very subjective. To us, what matters is that neither company promotes software freedom, but Google is a lot closer in the sense that some of its products and its funding go towards enabling software freedom (e.g. Summer of Code, Chromium, and maybe Wave to a certain extent).

It should be easy to see why we defend Google from AstroTurfers like LawMedia Group and ‘Consumer’ ‘Watchdog’ (Bill Gates too does his share of lobbying against Google). Microsoft has ongoing campaigns to destroy Google; the same can hardly be said about Google. Name just one AstroTurf action Google has run against Microsoft. It’s hard to think of any because it’s a one-way boxing match and it helps show why Microsoft is so widely detested in the IT industry.

“Microsoft Has Lobbied for Weaker Protection for Search Engines, ISPs,” argues Groklaw, which points to this page/file which says (the highlight in red is Groklaw’s): “Turning to the issue of limitations of liability, such provisions are important for the development of innovative Internet-based services. However, care is needed in drafting such provisions to ensure that exceptions are not so broad to include activity that is widely regarded as unlawful. Barry referred to this in his comments about Bill C-61. In Microsoft’s view the Internet and other digital network service providers who profit from providing services that enable or facilitate communication of infringing copies – so for example providers of software that help users locate infringing music, movies or software files – should not qualify for exemptions or limitations on remedies. Accordingly, provisions which seek to limit liability, ISPs or search engines should be carefully crafted.”

“I missed this at the time,” writes Pamela Jones (Groklaw) in News Picks, “but here [above] is part of what Microsoft’s Michael Hilliard, Corporate Counsel for Microsoft in Canada, said in the government’s Copyright Consultations round table discussion in Halifax about a year ago, in August of 2009, on the theme of desired changes to copyright law (MP3), and as you read it, have in mind the strategy that Viacom tried unsuccessfully to use against YouTube/Google, asking the court to rule that Google didn’t qualify for DMCA safe harbor protection…”

“[H]ere is part of what Microsoft’s Michael Hilliard, Corporate Counsel for Microsoft in Canada, said in the government’s Copyright Consultations round table discussion…”
      –Pamela Jones, GroklawTo put things in context, we’ve looked at recent news and gathered information which shows that in the US market (and meters that are not sponsored by Microsoft) Google continues to gain market share (not by excluding but by offering a better service).

Henry Blodget has argued that “Yahoo And AOL Should Immediately Merge” and it's not going to happen (more and more people seem to agree). Yahoo! is already somewhat of a property of Microsoft (the search part at the very least). MediaPost Communications looks at this alliance in the article “Navigating The Microsoft And Yahoo Alliance”. For those who do not remember, Yahoo! was very close to signing a deal with Google, but Microsoft is then said to have hired AstroTurfers including LawMedia Group to shoot down the deal. It was utterly disgusting but very typical for Microsoft. Later on Microsoft took over Yahoo!

Anyway, there is more than just search at stake. Search is just a gateway through which a company can gain a lot of Web surfers and channel them towards particular pages, including their own proprietary services (Fog Computing and such). The Microsoft-friendly 1105 Media is promoting Fog Computing for children right now, including the Live@edu scam (there is a new press release about it and additional complaints about lack of encryption in it). The education systems are still being exploited by Microsoft in order to offer ‘free’ indoctrination that’s akin to American EDGI [1, 2, 3, 4], which is now extending into Washington [1, 2, 3] and gets promoted by Seattle’s Microsoft boosters [1, 2]. Had they been honest, they would state that it’s not free and Microsoft should pay people for the privilege of having them brainwashed at the expense of their own time. Since Governor Gregoire is well within Microsoft’s pocket [1, 2], nothing will be done to stop this. If anything, she is likely to encourage this abuse which is marketed using sheer spin.

Over at Minnesota there is already a surrender to Microsoft's Fog Computing, which is maddeningly irresponsible as it puts state E-mails under Microsoft’s control and it’s ripe to misuse [1, 2]. It’s bad enough that some universities make this terrible mistake and under some new banner called “Microsoft Innovation Alliance” (we never came across it before) Microsoft is taking over many more colleges right now. To quote one example: “Software major Microsoft has enrolled BV Raju Institute of Technology (BVRIT) as its member under the Microsoft Innovation Alliance programme.”

That’ll be regrettable.

Based on what we learned in IRC last night, MTS (Canadian ISP) is also throwing its communications at Microsoft’s servers. To quote:

Well, I guess there’s no worry of getting heck for mentioning this since MTS has a press release about it on their website (August 7th)

MTS is phasing out their in-house email service, and switching to Microsoft Windows Live.

http://www.mts.ca/portal/site/mts/me…001342a8c0RCRD

“New customers will be able to take advantage of this new service starting August 17, and existing customers will be contacted by email with directions on transitioning to Windows Live services starting in October. Once the customer completes the transition, their existing emails and content in the customer’s current MTS Webmail online account will be transferred to their new Windows Live account all within a few minutes.”

This too will be regrettable because Hotmail is a disaster, just like the rest of Microsoft’s services (e.g. BPOS [1, 2, 3]), which are very unreliable and now require a downtime dashboard (no kidding!) rather than a permanent solution to prevent future downtimes. To put downtime in perspective by quoting the ‘Microsoft press’:

Microsoft acknowledged BPOS service outages affecting customers in North America on Aug. 23, Sept. 3 and Sept. 7.

That’s terrible. These downtimes were long, too. Imagine Google being down so often. It just ain’t because it’s built on top of Free software, which is a lot more reliable (even Microsoft uses GNU/Linux internally [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], at least for the mission-critical stuff, like DNS).

“Microsoft looks into Hotfail bug” says this new headline:

WEBMAIL PROVIDER Microsoft is looking into a bug that is apparently affecting thousands of its Hotmail users.

We were first alerted to the problem by a reader, as, er, none of us use Hotmail. Ian, in South Africa has been unable to get into his account all week and, quite fairly, thought that there might have been a correlation between the Hotmail security updates we had reported and his being unable to access the service.

Nobody needs Microsoft for Fog Computing or for search. That’s why Microsoft is so desperately trying to destroy Google. It’s the only choice it has left. Microsoft is known for breaking stuff (like competition) and taking other people’s stuff; it rarely creates anything worth using (“Usually Microsoft doesn’t develop products, we buy products,” said Microsoft’s European business security product manager). Google has the thinkers, Microsoft has the bullies. █

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” –Albert Einstein

Summary: Why Microsoft will not manage to grab yet another Internet giant, not any time soon anyway

CONSOLIDATION sounds like a nice word, but usually it means removal of choice and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Microsoft has already eliminated the second search engine in all sorts of nefarious ways. Microsoft never bought Yahoo! It just achieved a sort of hijack from the inside. The company is now run by many former executives of Microsoft.

Well, one reader from Brazil told us about reports like this one yesterday:

AOL Inc. and several private-equity firms are exploring making an offer to buy Yahoo Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, devising a bold plan to marry two big Internet brands facing steep challenges.

Considering rumours/speculations that turned out to be false regarding Adobe takeover, Nokia takeover, and even AOL [1, 2, 3], it’s probably a case of boy crying “Wolf!”

Microsoft cannot afford to buy anything significant anymore (it would require borrowing more money), so for anything significant to happen here is unlikely unless the takeover is indirect. As Cringely put it:

If you think AOL actually intends to buy Yahoo, you are wrong. That story hit the press this week but it’s a ruse to motivate Google exactly as I explained a few days ago. AOL has neither the money nor the motivation to buy Yahoo, which is analogous to a bus company buying a poorly-managed airline. AOL just wants to make Google jealous.

In other Yahoo! news, it’s harmed by Google’s Instant despite revamp attempts. Is Yahoo! still developing a search engine? Why bother anymore? Won’t Microsoft just devour the whole thing?

To Microsoft, Yahoo! is just a tool now, just like SCO was once a tool. Now it’s just dead:

SCO’s stock is now back up to 7 cents, up from 2 cents or maybe less — I don’t track it closely — and 7 is where it’s been hovering most of the time for the last few months. Do people really make money from these little dips and surges? What a life that must be. That is actually a fraction of a penny higher than the stock sold for on the day SCO filed for bankruptcy. Go figure.

There’s a long list of companies that ended up as corpses outside Microsoft’s lair. Which one will Microsoft exploit next? █

“On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO’s strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO’s financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital.”

–Bruce Perens

Summary: Microsoft rushes to put out the fire by claiming that a death of this whole unit (Live Labs) is just a part of reorganisation

THE high pace at which Microsoft products get axed makes it reasonable to expect more layoffs (those working on dead products or in dead business units).

Tim from OpenBytes told us yesterday that Dr. Gary William Flake had quit Microsoft. “I have resigned from Microsoft,” he wrote. Who is Dr. Flake? It’s this guy, the Research Leader of Microsoft’s Live Labs. He’s out.

The leader of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Live Labs research team resigned on Friday, the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the software giant.

Later on it turned out in the Seattle blogs/sites (Microsoft boosters in both these cases) that “Microsoft kills Live Labs” and for Microsoft to claim that it just “folds Live Labs into Bing” is a silly coverup. The company just wants to make it look “not as bad”. We gave many such examples before (“reorg” is a famous word they use for damage control). Bong [sic] too is being abandoned to a certain extent as Microsoft’s staff runs over to Yahoo! and grabs what’s left of it. We gave an example just days ago.

“The only part of Yahoo that is safe is Yahoo Japan, thanks to Jerry Yang and the rest of the Yahoo Japan board of directors resisting MS Bing and going instead with Google,” says our reader ‘Chips’. “Yahoo under Carol Bartz is like the mouse being eaten by the snake, not a pretty sight. [he added this news link]

“The big layoffs and cutting back, however, will not come until Ballmer leaves.”

Cringely believes that Microsoft should lay off up to half of its staff. There are not many products at Microsoft which actually make a profit. █

“I was out with a couple of Silicon Valley software guys in New York the other night and got their view of Microsoft’s finances. Microsoft makes 60 percent of its profits on Windows, 60 percent on Office, and minus 20 percent on everything else, they said. “

–Technology & Finance

Summary: More staff migrations are reported to have resulted in managers from Microsoft taking charge inside Yahoo! and Nokia is revisited as entryism candidate in its earlier phases

ENTRYISM becomes a strong tool for Microsoft to change the landscape of IT, especially now that so many Microsoft executives are leaving. One reader of ours, gnufreex, has asked for an article explaining what entryism is about and how it works. The Wikipedia article is broad and it focuses on entryism in the context of politics (Slated brought this analogy to wider public attention). Today we’ll give a quick update on Microsoft entryism and there is a lot more in our IRC channels (for those who are patient enough to open the logs and read them all).

“After talking [to] few ex and present Microsofties,” explained gnufreex, “I got to conclusion that those people are religious followers and they don’t know other company than Microsoft. That is their good. Wherever they go, they will still be working for Microsoft. There are two types of ex-Microsofties: One will stay faithful to the company and work for Microsoft cause when they move to another company. Other group will be professional and work for new company (not for Microsoft) but they will shape new company after proprietary principles they have been thought at Microsoft. So *any* company that contain ex-Microsofties in management, will be hostile to free software. They are like a plague. [...] There have been some rare exceptions. Some ex-Microsofties are completely sick of the ideas of MS. There have been guys that worked for Microsoft for 6 months and quit due to having to much common sense to accept their crap. One example, creator of CoyotOS and BitC. Shapiro. He have been hired away from CoyotOS when Hurd guys wanted to port Hurd servers to CoyotOS.”

“Wherever they go, they will still be working for Microsoft.”
      –gnufreexAs a timely example, we have documented quite thoroughly how Yahoo! got hijacked by Microsoft from the inside. That’s an excellent example of entryism, involving no less than several dozens of Microsoft managers entering a company that once rejected Microsoft and aggressively defended itself from Microsoft. Nowadays, after many Microsoft seniors managed to occupy key positions at Yahoo!, hostility towards Google at Yahoo! is greater and it is working out pretty well for Microsoft. “Microsoft Joins Yahoo In Criticizing Google Instant,” says this new headline and it’s not the first time we see such things. Yahoo dives into anti-Google agenda like Microsoft's marionette and Yahoo! may have patents too — ones that it can use to attack Google shall the former Microsoft managers who occupy Yahoo’s corpus callosum choose to do so (this possibility was covered before on several occasions).

As a reminder, Yahoo! and Google were almost allies before AstroTurfing (LawMedia) from Microsoft. Watch what Google’s CEO has to say about the antitrust claims which came through Microsoft allies recently:

Google boss Eric Schmidt has said that antitrust investigations targeting the company in the EU and Texas are “stimulated” by interested competitors and that — contrary to one of the complaints filed in the EU — the company’s “Universal Search” setup does not unfairly drive traffic to Google services at the expense of rivals.

The article addresses those accusations from Texas — accusations which Schmidt now attributes to competitors rather than just Microsoft as Google previously alleged [1, 2, 3] (those competitors are Microsoft partners for the most part).

Going back to Yahoo!, the company suffered a major exodus recently (Microsoft did too) and Yahoo! kept the press out of it. People who are not so muchly needed in Microsoft as much as they are needed for capturing a rival without acquiring it are entering Yahoo! again. More entryism in Yahoo? The Register says “Bing! man! drops! Microsoft! for! Yahoo! job!”

Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet reported Bradford’s departure, but Yahoo! hasn’t confirmed his job title yet. It’s not clear when he’ll be leaving Microsoft either.

[...]

Windows Live exec Blake Irving, Microsoft global ad sales man Bill Shaughnessy and John Metheny of Kin fame have all rocked up at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale offices of late.

Here is what we wrote about Microsoft managers inside Yahoo! allegedly planning to bring more former colleagues from Microsoft as the company continues to sink [1, 2].

Yahoo! boss Carol Bartz confirmed that the company’s US head and two other execs were leaving the web outfit yesterday.

Hilary Schneider’s departure along with the resignations of media veep Jimmy Pitaro and audience wonk David Ko were announced by Bartz to all Yahoo!

This whole culture of entryism worries us greatly because the quicker Microsoft falls, the more Microsoft residue (of managers, not mere engineers) will spread to other companies.

“Examples of companies MS has bought a small share of (less than the 5% to report) but use to influence the board of said companies, is Netflix, Best Buy. Blockbuster had Carl Icahn the corporate raider to the same thing with that he did to Yahoo, most likely on M$ behalf,” Chips B. Malroy alleged. “Once that influence has worked and they get their people in, then MS can sell the stock,” he added.

The other day we wrote about what was happening in Nokia following the appointment of a Microsoft president (now Nokia's CEO). Not only did its key “Linux guy” (VP of Nokia’s MeeGo unit) resign but he also allegedly said “Me go now!” Yes, Ari Jaaksi resigned his position and he has not exactly given explanations to the press (it is a low-key departure). He only got “quoted as saying by Ilta-Sanomat that his departure was not linked to the naming of Stephen Elop as Nokia’s new managing director last month,” said one site. MeeGo is better than Android is many ways and Nokia’s lack of commitment will also harm Intel’s Linux plans. █

“A stacked panel, on the other hand, is like a stacked deck: it is packed with people who, on the face of things, should be neutral, but who are in fact strong supporters of our technology.”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]