Microsoft... now with 50% less evil?

Personally I have never thought of Microsoft as evil. They are competitive, aggressive, all encompassing and fierce. But I wouldn't say evil.

Truth be told, I would probably do most of the things they have done if I was in the same possition and smart enough.

But 'Microsoft is Evil' used to be a pretty common musing - even if it was just in jest. I think this is starting to turn around now with the growing transparency and 'Naked Conversations' coming out of Redmond.

People like Robert Scoble, Alex Barnett and even Ray Ozzie are turning it around and making Microsoft more agile - and putting faces to the faceless (minus Bill Gates) evil empire.

Robert even jokes that MS is loosing their Evil to google (look at me referring to him by first name - like I know the guy).

But something recently just freaked me out. I just downloaded the IE7 Beta 2 'Preview' and I was shocked to find that the default search engine for the Firefox'esque search box was.... *drum roll* GOOGLE!

Oh my god - *I* would never do something like that - I don't even think Ashley would (and he is a pretty hippy 'lets make peace with the world' sorta guy). Is this just my installation for some freak reason? Is this the default way it comes? Is this an oversight? Or is this a choice?

In any case - its funny and fun. I am glad we live in a world where Microsoft is becoming if not our friend... friendly.

So I say well done to Microsoft - and thanks for being so nice. If you're looking for your evil - maybe try the google-plex!