The "action by Google" of maliciously adding themselves to a quirks-mode list[1] maintained solely by Microsoft, that Google had no access to or ability to add themselves to, when their website works perfectly well in IE11 if that list is disabled[2]?

[1] "What appears to be happening here is that Google’s search engine has somehow been added to IE11′s Compatibility View list."

[2] "Uncheck “Use Microsoft Compatibility lists” and Google’s search engine should work again."

That actually doesn't explain anything: "quirks" mode just emulates IE's old behavior and changes the user agent string to match. Old IE renders Google fine, so simply being in quirks mode shouldn't cause anything to break.

Disclaimer: Work at MS, I can't even see IE from my building, etc, etc.

Slow down there - that list is hardly a "quirks-mode" list and there's no reason to believe a change in behavior was malicious by either party. You're assuming that list was recently changed by Microsoft for the purpose of what - ruining customer's experiences of using Windows 8.1? Tarnish Google's reputation?

There are so many assumptions at work here that I don't think it's reasonable to conclude any malice.

> You're assuming that list was recently changed by Microsoft for the purpose of what - ruining customer's experiences of using Windows 8.1? Tarnish Google's reputation?

I'm not assuming that, and I haven't concluded malice on MS's part. I worded the comment to emphasize the ridiculousness of concluding malice on Google's part, but didn't mean to imply I thought there was malice the other way. Apologies if I misled you.

Relevant: Hanlon's razor[1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Apologies to you then - and I'm fond of Hanlon's razor myself.

Not to mention the huge negative effect it must have on Google's short-term revenue to do such a thing intentionally. I suppose it could be argued that longer term it may make sense for Google to break IE in order to increase Chrome's market share, and thereby increase the number of users defaulted to Google search. Would be very risky, though.

Have you read the article at all ? Google is set in IE's "compatibility mode" list. That means someone at Microsoft itself has made a mistake or has no faith in their browser rendering google's site properly in their normal rendering mode. Nothing in the article indicate that Google has done anything.

You really shouldn't draw any conclusion about issues when you can't even bother to read the entire article.

I sure hope this was meant to be sarcastic and isn't just a ridiculous attempt at spreading FUD.

He's an obvious troll; his name is the name of the SomethingAwful techy-circlejerk sub-forum.

YOSPOS: Your OS is a Piece Of Shit

Google has certainly done that before (especially with Windows Phone) but we should probably give them the benefit of the doubt here. Is it really in Google's best interest to no longer effectively serve ads to their users?

As others have suggested, this was probably an inadvertent change.