Google challenges IE browser

Google Inc. is hoping to pressure Microsoft Corp. into changing a new Internet Explorer browser feature that could direct more people to Microsoft’s online search engine instead of Google’s far more popular offering.

Google has informally complained to U.S. and European antitrust regulators about what it says are biased settings on Microsoft’s latest Web browser, marking the latest spat between two technology industry leaders whose business models are increasingly bumping up against one another.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google regards Microsoft as the biggest threat to its continued success, and Microsoft has conceded that Goggle is a formidable competitor as well.

The next version of Internet Explorer, available now in test form, includes a box in the corner that lets people perform an Internet search without going to a separate Web page, much like what’s available from Google’s downloadable “toolbar.”

Users who download IE 7 will be assigned a search engine preference based on the AutoSearch function from the previous version of IE, which is likely to be MSN Search. Google says it’s concerned that Microsoft’s own search engine is getting favored treatment, and said research it has sponsored shows that it’s difficult to change the settings in the new browser to a rival search engine.

•General Motors Corp. will pay lower prices for parts from Delphi Corp. after it failed to reach an agreement to continue paying higher rates to the auto supplier, Delphi said Monday in a filing with federal regulators.

Delphi, GM’s former parts division and largest supplier, filed for bankruptcy protection in October. A month later, GM agreed to temporarily forgo scheduled price reductions on Delphi parts.

GM paid higher prices through the first quarter, but Delphi said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was unable to reach an agreement with GM to continue paying those rates. •Trying to increase demand for personal computers in India and other emerging markets, Intel Corp. plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years to promote the use of computers in schools, cafes and other public spots in developing countries.

The initiative, which Chief Executive Paul Otellini plans to outline on Wednesday, builds on a three-pronged strategy of increasing the availability of low-cost PCs, making it easier to access the Internet and getting more computers into the classrooms in poor countries.