Brandon Werner

Google has been pretty sensitive to Microsoft integrating things in to their operating system that might, even in the slightest bit, cause people to feel some barrier to using Google technology in their browsers. In that light, I can’t imagine what Apple was thinking when they decided to include this helpful prompt asking if you are really really sure you want to make Google your homepage if your homepage happens to be something else. This isn’t even a generic warning about moving a homepage either, it mentions Google specifically.

To reproduce this at home follow these steps:

• Set your homepage in Safari 3 Beta to www.nytimes.com or any other site
• Close your preferences
• Go back in and try to set it to Google.com
• See this message: “Are you sure you want to switch your home page to Google search? You can do a Google search directly from Safari’s search field without going to Google’s webpage”

For Google, who try to make themselves the homepage of choice through their iGoogle initiative, competing directly with other portal providers, this must be a nightmare prompt from their friends at Apple.

I’m certain Apple meant no harm in adding this prompt, but how much do you want to bet this doesn’t make it in to the final release?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under OSX, Operating Systems, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.