Historians will look back on last Friday as the date that Google was "Netscaped"

Historians will look back on last Friday as the date that Google was "Netscaped"

There are dozens of news stories out on the wires, and they all say basically the same thing:

The US Justice Department has reviewed Google's request to block Microsoft from adding a MSN default search box to their browser, and the DOJ has found that there is "no basis for concern." To make sure their decision was crystal clear they also stated "We have concluded our work on this matter." Ouch.

In other words, Microsoft is free to go ahead and "default" Google out of its search monopoly.

With Wired magazine citing studies that show up to 50 percent of all searches these days are done from the search box, and not from typing www.whateversearchengine.com, Google stands to lose a crapload of their traffic simply because most users can't be bothered to change the default. And to those who say the MSN search results are nowhere near as good as Google's, then you obviously haven't tried it in the last 6 months or so. Hell, even Yahoo's results are basically IDENTICAL to Google's now.

This also seems to be giving Microsoft a green light to integrate default MSN search into the desktop itself, which will siphon even more traffic away from Google.

And to all the fan boys out there who say this will have no impact whatsoever on GOOG's traffic and/or revenue, maybe you should ask yourself why Google put in the emergency request with the Feds to block Microsoft from doing this in the first place- if it was "no big deal anyway."

Riiiiight.

P.S. as far as I can tell the announcement didn't happen until after the markets closed for trading on Friday, so we could be in for some serious downward action on GOOG shares this Monday morning.