How does Google get away with this sort of stuff?
The latest version of Google Toolbar for IE has a strange new feature: keep Google as the default search engine. There's an exe that runs by default at the startup and monitors if another software (like MSN Toolbar) tries to change Google's settings.
Read the full post for details -- Google acknowledges its toolbar has a bug, but here's how it's working today:
If you install the latest Google toolbar, set Google as your default search provider, and later go into the IE7 Change Search Defaults dialog, change to a default other than Google, click Set Default, and then click OK, you'll see:
Clicking the icon then leads to a dialog that explains you can disable the override etc. 
The current bug part: the "Disable default search protection..." option above doesn't stick.
No doubt Google will fix the bug sometime soon, but I'll remain baffled about why anyone would think it's reasonable for Google to do a kludgey (separate .exe monitor) override of a user choice in IE7. I can only imagine the outrage if the roles were reversed, and Microsoft were overriding Google user options...
Source: Google Operating System: Google Is Your Default Search
1 comment:
Wow, this really sucks. So much for "do no evil". I'm uninstalling the Google toolbar now.
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