Combine a desperate need to build a search business with a desperate need to just plain build business and you have a situation where ancient rivals cozy up. So it is with Microsoft and Sun on their joint agreement announced today to add a Live Search task bar to U.S.-based IE users when they download the Java Runtime Environment.
Specifically, when IE downloads Java it will offer users the option of having the MSN Toolbar automatically installed. The bar will include one-click access to Live Search, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. But notice how this is not an original move. Sun struck the same agreement with Google way back in 2005 to drive adoption of the Google Toolbar. The Microsoft deal boots Google out of the way, at least for U.S. users. (But that’s a so-what. How many Google users don’t already have the toolbar installed?) Microsoft can be a bigger player in search, but it has to learn to think more creatively about search. Ongoing me-too tactics just isn’t going to win this war.
Still, after two decades of bitter rivalry, the rift between Microsoft and Sun grows ever smaller. In March the two announced an interoperability lab on the Microsoft campus.
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