(InfoWorld) - Google may be seeking a reopening of state and federal government antitrust action against Microsoft, but a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official has recommended against it, newspaper reports indicated Sunday.

Google alleged that Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system puts other search software companies at a disadvantage, making it difficult for users to employ non-Microsoft desktop-search software, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing lawyers familiar with the case. Microsoft's own desktop indexing system is almost impossible to turn off, Google claimed in a white paper sent to both the DOJ and states' attorneys general, thereby affecting a computer's performance when running non-Microsoft search index, the report said.

Microsoft denied the accusations, saying that its own search indexing could be turned off, although with some difficulty, and that its program did not interfere with the operation of other search indexing software and therefore did not influence performance, according to the report.

Despite Google's efforts to draw its rival into a protracted legal fight, the company's antitrust cries are falling on deaf ears, especially at the DOJ, which fought Microsoft over monopoly accusations in the late 1990s until a settlement in 2002, according to The New York Times, which also cited lawyers close to the case.

Thomas O. Barnett, now the DOJ's top-ranking antitrust official, recommended in May that the DOJ and state attorneys general reject Google's complaint, the report said. Formerly employed by a law firm that represented Microsoft during the DOJ antitrust suit, Barnett did not work on the case before joining the DOJ, and recused himself from involvement in the DOJ's ongoing monitoring of Microsoft that is part of the 2002 settlement, the report said.

However, some state prosecutors may take up the case with or without the DOJ, which is slated to be heard in Federal District Court in Washington later this month, it said.

Adobe has just unveiled the official name of its much talked about Adobe Apollo product: Adobe Integrated Runtime, or Adobe AIR for short. Adobe is also announcing a beta version of the runtime, which will include Ajax and HTML support. This means developers can create an Apollo application entirely based on HTML, without using Flash at all.

For those who may not know, Adobe Apollo was the code name for the cross-operating runtime developed by Adobe that allows developers to create Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. There's a myriad of possible use cases for this technology, from productivity applications that work both online and offline, to music players such as Finetune that can be accessed via the desktop.

Adobe AIR is expected to be released at the end of the year, and will include a beta version of this runtime along with Ajax and HTML support. Previously, you could only build an Apollo application using Flash, but Adobe is now making it more appealing to a wider range of HTML developers - who may not use Adobe Flash. So included in this announcement is an extension that allows Apollo apps to be created directly from Dreamweaver, and PDF support to leverage the PDF platform in Apollo applications. The release also includes a SQLite database, just like Google Gears, so developers can go between the two easily.

Adobe is attempting to streamline the process of building Apollo applications, in the hope it increases adoption rates. The challenge in introducing a web development platform is making it simple enough for developers to test drive, yet valuable enough for the end user. Adobe competitor Dekoh (see our profile here), is using an open-source model and community to increase adoption. In many ways, the Adobe strategy is similar to that of Facebook, which recently opened up the Facebook platform. Most web teams can easily develop a Facebook app in a weekend, as it is simple for the development team to create apps for that platform. In turn, the Facebook team hopes that it's valuable enough to the end user, which then encourages more application building and innovation from developers at other websites.

Although not exactly identical situations, Adobe is making it easier for all the developers out there to play around with the platform - and opening it up to HTML developers seems like a smart move. Backed by a $100 million venture fund and tons of corporate investment, Adobe needs to also do a better job of showcasing successful implementations of Apollo; and convince end users why they need to have online and offline support. That is probably the major goal behind the Adobe Bus Tour, also announced today, in which Adobe is traveling to 18 cities to perform demos and spread the word on the platform.

Despite the bus tour, my mother and father (average Internet users) need to be convinced that there are many instances in their lives where they need a desktop application of some of their favorite Internet sites/applications. It's still early in the process but, coupled with the open sourced Flex 3, Adobe is taking a very active approach to being more nimble and inclusive about engaging early adopters.

New strategic direction: Borland competes with itself

Keeping up with Borland’s corporate plans is a challenge. In early 2006, it said it would see its IDE tools business, including the Delphi and JBuilder products. Nine months later it formed CodeGear, but as a wholly-owned subsidiary, saying that nobody came up with a good enough offer. “It was obvious that the positive cash flow from the IDE business was much more attractive for us,” Borland’s Mike Hulme told Reg Dev here.…

php|works 2007 will be held this year in Atlanta, Georgia from September 12-14. Three entire days dedicated to entirely to PHP with certainly lots of great talks, and a special first day for tutorials. The call for papers is active until June 27th, so don't miss it to submit your proposals.

AP - Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.

We've just updated our free C# to VB.NET and VB.NET to C# converters on Developer Fusion - they're adapted from the neat little utilities within the free .NET IDE, #develop . They now keep your comments in tact too. Great for when you've found those bits of sample code in the wrong language! If you haven't come across them before, they're well worth a look.

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