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Microsoft Moves To Nobble Customers With New Cortana Stunt

Microsoft who has already been branded a ‘predatory monopolist Company’ that in the past openly violated antitrust laws could face new action with their latest Cortana stunt.

This time the big US software Company who recently delivered new Cortana, voice recognition technology in their Windows 10 OS will now only allow you to search using their dreadful Bing engine and their woeful Microsoft Edge browser, which consumers and business are deserting in the tens of millions.

This is akin to Google suddenly saying that you cannot search Google unless you are using Chrome or Android OS.

Can you imagine Google Maps only working in Android or Chrome?

Cortana no longer recognises non-Microsoft browsers or search engines in fulfilling user requests on Windows 10 which the Company is tipped to charge for shortly.

The restrictions are reminiscent of earlier company moves that once led the U.S. Department of Justice to sue Microsoft for violating antitrust violations.

Microsoft claims Cortana offers a better user experience when used with Edge and Bing and as we all know this is pure B+&*$@it

Browser extensions offered by third parties have allowed users to force the Windows 10 version of Cortana to use the browser or search engine of their choice.

In addition, Alphabet’s Chrome browser and Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox search engines let users bypass Edge and Bing.

An update of Windows 10 released Thursday locked in Cortana’s default choices.

“Unfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage, we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not designed to work with Cortana,” Ryan Gavin, the general manager of search and Cortana, wrote in the blog post. “The result is a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable.”

Google has declined to comment. Officials from Mozilla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Observers are comparing the decision to restrict Cortana to Microsoft’s services to moves the company made in the 1990s, when it first bundled its Internet Explorer browser into Windows and crushed the upstart Netscape Navigator browser. In 2000, a federal judge ruled that Microsoft was a predatory monopolist that violated antitrust laws.

Microsoft ultimately settled the dispute, which included a consent decree that, in part, barred the company from retaliating against PC makers that installed non-Microsoft programs. The consent decree expired in 2011.