The search antitrust ball is back in DOJ, states' court

During a June 26 Microsoft antitrust-compliance status hearing, a U.S. Districut Court judge said she'll look to the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general for guidance, re: Google's latest antitrust-related complaints against Microsoft.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Tuesday she expected the plaintiffs (the DOJ and states) to act on behalf of consumers, in terms of monitoring Microsoft's complaince with terms from a 2002 final judgement in its antitrust battle.

On June 25, Google filed an amicus brief, asking Judge Kollar-Kotelly to extend antitrust oversight of Microsoft, as well as to force Microsoft to provide more specifics regarding its plans to alter Windows Vista's integrated desktop search technology in order to improve the performance of rival, third-party desktop search products on Vista.