The funny thing about Microsoft stomping on other browsers (and media players) ......

Is that we now have two superior browsers. I.E. is still pretty much kwap. As is most every other thing that is from Redmond. And the only thing Microsoft can do? Is to come out with a better product. Uh huh, good luck with that. So, while I think rather poorly of Microsoft's past anti-competitive business practices. Both the lab and the market change so rapidly, that dislike fades to ambivalence and can often be replaced with total indifference. Linux still seems rather moribund, while Apple still holds onto it's crag. And then along comes Google to really stink the joint up. Only the most angered and well funded will be able to spit back into their evil eye. We will all wish them luck.

Google sued over Internet call technology

Jerry Weinberger, of Rates Technology Inc. (RTI) ..... inventor of software programming that allows telephone calls to be placed over the Internet ..... said 120 companies, including Lucent, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo and Microsoft, have paid RTI to use the technology for "Voice over Internet Protocol" (VoIP) calls.

RTI filed suit in a Long Island federal court against Google two months ago because the search engine was using the technology without authorisation ..... "They told us to go to hell," the RTI boss told AFP. "They are the most arrogant company in the world."