So, I accidentally removed Google from the search providers in someone's IE, rather than the Bing I had intended to remove (you'll have your opinions about that, I'm sure), and went to Find More Search Providers to rectify my mistake.
Couldn't find Google's entry. They've changed the "Pick your Search Provider" thing again (made it look and feel a bit like the side-scrolling pages of floaty icons currently famous in iPads and iPhones, except it's faked (including half-hidden 'next page' icons) so you have to use < and > buttons to 'scroll' and change the on-page icons). And the "Add Your Own Search Provider" link of recent times (which I've used in the past to add the DF wiki on personal machines) is either absent or so far hidden from view.
(Even Ask Jeeves and Yahoo appeared near the end of the list, several side-scrolls away. Amazon (UK) was at the very beginning, but an XBox search next to it, surprise surprise, so definitely not alphabetical.)
Anyway,
searching for Google amongst Search Providers got me the link I need, but it still isn't there when I view the whole lot.
(In case you're interested, the URL is
www.iegallery.com/gb/addons/default.aspx#searchproviders, but YMMV if they change it again or make it react differently according to browsed-from region, despite the "/gb/" bit. This was also IE8, and might be different on IE9. If you're using a non-MS browser it might easily be different (some positioning is wrong when browsed from this 'ere Firefox install, otherwise much the same, though), but you probably wouldn't have any reason to go there.)
So, MS playing its games again? They've downplayed Google vs Live Search/Bing at least a couple of times in the past, so it wouldn't be the first time.
But, then again, I know some people who think that Google is "the next Microsoft" (or even "the current Microsoft"), with all that entails,
taking overproviding services to the entire world, so perhaps there's not much love lost there even from the User Base. I'm not going to be so trite as to put a poll up to see who trusts Google over MS, who is vice-versa, or who wouldn't touch either of them with a bargepole, if they didn't have to (and then there's those who are happy that they don't have to, but have their own opinions about Apple/Ubuntu/whoever), but I bet there's a whole range of opinions on that front.
Prepostfakeedit: Added Google to the Search Providers, but it aint appearing. The machine in question has other problems that I'm sorting out, though (none of which would affect the browsing experience, however) so I'm abandoning that for the time being.
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Topic: MS and Google (Read 659 times)