Microsoft has pulled another trick to get people to use its Bing search engine. If you use Bing without signing in to your Microsoft account and type Google into the search box, you’ll see a page that looks a lot like… Google.
Microsoft has pulled another trick to get people to use its Bing search engine. If you use Bing without signing in to your Microsoft account and type Google into the search box, you’ll see a page that looks a lot like… Google.
This is an obvious attempt by Microsoft to make Bing look like Google for this particular search query, with other searches simply showing regular Bing search results without this special interface, notes The Verge.
Google’s search result includes a search bar, an image that looks a lot like the Google Doodle, and even a little text below the search bar, just like Google. Microsoft even automatically scrolls down the page to hide its own Bing search bar that appears at the top of the search results.
While Bing still displays Google search results under this fake Google interface, many people will first see this interface when they set up a new PC and search for Google in the Microsoft Edge browser address bar. It is intended to encourage users to continue using Bing instead of switching to Google.
This is just one of the latest such tricks from the corporation. In the past, Microsoft has modified Chrome download sites, added pop-up ads to Google Chrome on Windows, implemented surveys on Chrome download pages, and even used pop-ups that resemble malware to force people to abandon Google. Users have also reported receiving emails from the Microsoft Rewards program asking them if they want to win $1 million for «minimal effort» — switching to Bing.
Google also has its own notifications on its websites to encourage people to download Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge, but they are not as aggressive as Microsoft’s methods.
