Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is trying to convince [subscription required] the Justice Department that it should seek to extend its anti-trust oversight of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). A U.S. District Court agreed in 2002 to keep track of Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior.
Of course that was back in the day when Microsoft was using its Windows operating system to crush companies with competing browsers, like Netscape, and competing media platforms, like RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK).
Google claims that because Microsoft's Vista OS has been found to make it difficult for PCs to run the Google desktop search function, that the government should continue to keep an eye on Redmond. The government's current watchdog role ends in November.
Google is telling the government that it cannot take care of itself. If Microsoft is the originator of future bad behavior, it cannot come back to the courts with a new case. Microsoft is too big and too bad to be controlled.
It is an argument that is too clever by half. Google is not Netscape and it is not RealNetworks. It competes with Microsoft on an even footing. It does not need the help of the federal government to make sure that Vista does it no harm. If its problems persist beyond November, it can always come back with a new complaint. But Microsoft probably gets the message.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
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