Microsoft is getting desperate for more Bing users but this annoying Edge pop-up is definitely not the way to go about it

Date:
Tue, 19 Dec 2023 11:12:32 +0000

Description:
Microsoft is catching flak for pushing Bing search isnt it about time these kinds of pop-ups were stopped?

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It seems Microsoft is up to its old tricks in trying to push people into
using its products, once again, and this time the play is to persuade Edge users to switch their search engine to Bing.

As Windows Central spotted, developer Brad Sams (of Stardock fame) brought
our attention to Microsofts latest bout of anti-user behavior in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The only thing that keeps me on Edge is that I can
alt+tab between open tabs...is there a Chrome plugin that enables that? This is anti-user behavior by @MicrosoftEdge pic.twitter.com/JCvRm7PiGV December 18, 2023 See more

Sams uses the Edge browser, but was prompted to switch to Bing as the default search engine rather than Google, as you can see in the above screenshot.

This is not the first time Microsoft has been promoting Bing in such a
manner, alongside driving other services including Edge itself and OneDrive . (Search for a new browser in Edge, for example, and youll get a banner
telling you theres no need to download a different web browser, and the various reasons why).

The Bing search engine continues to struggle for market share against the might of Google, with Microsofts creation securing only 3.2% of the market as of November 2023, according to Statcounter. Analysis: Bing headway or lack
of it

Microsoft hoped that Bing Chat, its AI now-renamed Copilot, would help to swell the ranks of Bing search users when it was launched early this year
but as we can see, that hasnt happened . The Bing search engine had a 3%
share at the beginning of 2023 going by Statcounters figures, so has notched that up 0.2% over the course of the year a pretty miniscule uptick.

Its safe to say, then, that the AI angle has not panned out for Bing search, although Microsoft has now started thinking about what its various products can do for Copilot, rather than what the chatbot can do for those products. ( Witness the debut of Copilot in Windows 10 , driving user numbers of the AI forward, rather than keeping Copilot as a carrot to drive migration to
Windows 11 ).

At any rate, whatever piece of Microsofts vast jigsaw of products and
services were talking about, we dont want to see prompts in Edge, or Windows 11, or anywhere else, trying to twist the arms of users to switch to another Microsoft creation.

And fair enough, Google does this kind of thing too, pushing Chrome and its own search but not as often as Microsoft in our experience. Can we please
lay off the various prompts for 2024, Microsoft? Because if anything, throughout 2023 they seem to have become more prevalent again. You might also like ... Microsoft Edge is better than Google Chrome, but I can't bring
myself to switch Microsoft kills off Edge features in a bid to beat Chrome Following Bing AI, Google could bring AI writing tools to Chromebooks



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/microsoft-is-getting-desperate-fo r-more-bing-users-but-this-annoying-edge-pop-up-is-definitely-not-the-way-to-g o-about-it


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