Google protests Microsoft's browser plan

New York: Google Inc. is among Web-browser makers asking the European Union to force Microsoft Corp. to make it easier to choose alternatives to Internet Explorer under terms of an EU antitrust settlement, a person familiar with the matter said last week.

Google joined the Firefox browser's developers - Opera Software ASA and Mozilla Corp. - in protesting aspects of Microsoft's proposal for a "ballot screen", said the person, who declined to be identified because the complaints aren't public. The ballot would appear to owners of new personal computers on Microsoft's Internet Explorer and would let them choose their main browser.

"We like the notion of a ballot screen, but to implement it with Internet Explorer won't restore competition," said Opera Chief Technology Officer Haakon Wium Lie in a telephone interview. "All the other browsers share the same opinion. I hope there is a chance to get it right."

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, accepted a key European Commission demand in July that it give consumers a choice of browsers through a ballot screen. The Redmond, Washington-based company has been fined 1.68 billion euros ($2.46 billion) in previous EU antitrust cases. It would avoid another penalty if it reaches a settlement.

Opposition to the accord by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a group that includes Opera, was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"We've made our proposals in July, the commission welcomed them, they're investigating further, and we look forward to seeing the next steps in the process," Jesse Verstraete, a Microsoft spokesman in Brussels, said.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has said she would like to resolve the case before she leaves office. She will probably be asked to extend her five-year term, which ends October 31, until the end of this year.

"The commission would like to reach a settlement quickly, but it has to be meaningful," Opera's Lie said.

Lie complained that users would be confronted with six different messages when they try to download a browser through Internet Explorer. Many people wouldn't follow through and would make Explorer the default browser. Competition would be restored if the ballot screen were an application that could be automatically downloaded to a user's PC, he said.

The commission will publish the terms of Microsoft's settlement in October or November, Philip Lowe, director general of the commission's competition department, said in an interview in Washington on September 22.