On September 4th I tweeted this:
“Downloaded MSFT security essentials. It says Chrome is a risk”
This was my first Tweet to be Favorited (and by top tier comedian @JimCoughlin nonetheless) so I remember it…
On September 28th, Essentials did indeed begin flagging Chrome as unsafe, and removing it from PCs! Read about it in Wired.
Background:
It was a simple joke, based on MSFT’s history of abuse of Windows power. Security Essentials is a highly recommended FREE program for protecting your PC (it happens to make redundant Norton and McAfee’s offerings*).
With the power to remove viruses and malware, it was easy to see how MSFT might “define dangerous down” to include software from competitors like Google, which makes the Chrome browser. Remember, MSFT set out to destroy Netscape Navigator back in the 90s, which is why to this day it has to recommend alternatives to Internet Explorer for European PC users.
But my Tweet was just a bad joke. I didn’t think MSFT would purposely remove competition. Nor do I think it acted in bad faith with Security Essentials. There was a basis for mistaking Chrome for malware… and the corrections have been made on both sides.
* more irony: MSFT destroyed Navigator by giving away IE. Now MSFT is giving away Security Essentials, putting Norton Anti-Virus in peril.. but the government could care . less.
