An AI Replay of the Browser Wars, Bankrolled by Google
The search giant is trying to put Microsoft through its ’90s nightmare again — though this time the stakes are even higher.
Microsoft’s CoPilot assistant is now embedded in its Edge browser.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
A quarter of a century ago, when Microsoft Corp. used its dominance of the personal computer market to force people to use Internet Explorer, it famously led to a devastating antitrust lawsuit loss that some believe held the company back for more than a decade. Only now, revitalized by Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s quick moves in artificial intelligence, is the Windows-maker back on top. As AI rivalries intensify, Google is now trying to put Microsoft through its ’90s nightmare again.
The search giant is funding the Browser Choice Alliance, an industry group involving Google and a number of smaller browser makers, such as Opera, Vivaldi and others, set up to put pressure on Microsoft. The complaint, as it was back then, is that Microsoft is once again using its ownership of the Windows operating system to give its own browser an unfair leg up — at a moment that some feel is as pivotal as the emergence of the internet.