The new laptop I bought a few months ago came pre-installed with Windows Vista. I’ve been using the built-in search a lot after becoming accustomed to Spotlight on my Mac. I’ve also been following Google’s efforts to force Microsoft to modify Vista’s desktop search pretty closely.

I mentioned this in a comment on another post here, but I wanted to briefly talk about my experience using Vista’s built-in search to jump to an Internet search.

Until recently I’d never used Vista’s desktop search to start an Internet search. I had always assumed that it would use Microsoft’s Live Search. I mean… this is one of the reasons Google has been upset about Vista desktop search, right?

Imagine my surprise when the search engine that appeared was not Live Search - but Google.

I have IE and Firefox set up opposite from one another, search engine-wise: IE defaults to Yahoo! Search as a start page and Google as the default toolbar search; Firefox defaults to Google as a start page and Yahoo! Search as the default toolbar search.

Vista used my default setting in IE (Google) to perform the Internet search that I initiated from the Windows Start Menu. Needless to say, I was a little surprised. But upon closer reading at Microsoft’s website, I saw this in the explanation of Vista’s desktop search:

If the results aren’t what you’re looking for, Instant Search provides easy access to tools that can help you design more specific searches or search across the Internet using your search engine of choice.

This isn’t a highly publicized option, of course. The default in Vista is set to Live.com (unless changed by an OEM). I, like many others, just assumed that the change in IE was IE-specific. It’s good to know that Microsoft is honoring that setting across the board.

Now if only I could get Firefox to truly stick as my default web browser… I’d be a happy camper.