The software giant first introduced malware-like pop-up ads last year with a prompt that appeared over the top of other apps and windows. After pausing that notification to address “unintended behavior,” the pop-ups have returned again on Windows 10 and 11.
Windows users have reported seeing the new pop-up in recent days, advertising Bing AI and Microsoft’s Bing search engine inside Google Chrome. If you click yes to this prompt, then Microsoft will set Bing as the default search engine for Chrome. These latest prompts look like malware, and once again have Windows users asking if they are legit or nefarious. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that the pop-ups are genuine and should only appear once.
Every trick Microsoft pulled to make you browse Edge instead of Chrome
These latest prompts
look like malwareAre malware.
The constant stream of this horseshit is why I abandoned Windows nonsense again.
If I continue to break the law with my car they will take it away.
MS should be forced to sell Bing+Edge as a separate entity.
Legitimately the only reason I still have a Windows 10 ISO and key sitting on my long term storage drive is because I fear that I may have to install it to use VR whenever I get a new kit.
Please Valve. Pretty please…
Actually, didn’t Facebook buy the lens company Valve was donating to and working with to develop their new VR lens tech? I forgot about that. Another reason to hate Facebook. (I refuse to call it the M word.)
I still think it’s wild that they just stole the name and bullied their way into keeping it and nothing bad happened.
Before my PC died, my Index was working under Arch FWIW. Can’t speak for other hardware though
😍
the only thing Bing is good for is for finding porn.
Not so much anymore. Bing and google are pretty shit nowadays (for most any searches). I’ve been getting more accurate search results with duckduckgo, but I’m still looking for a search engine with better results.
Kagi is pretty good, but expensive. I like that listicles are put in their own small section so you can ignore them. You can boost, pin, demote, or block results from certain domains. You can create and quickly switch between domain list presets to search only specific sets of sites. The only thing I don’t like is the exerpts below results don’t bold what you’re looking for like Google does.
duckduckgo just uses bing on the backend doesnt it?
Duckduckgo –
We also maintain our own crawler (DuckDuckBot) and many indexes to support our results. Of course, we have more traditional links and images in our search results too, which we largely source from Bing. Our focus is synthesizing all these sources to create a superior search experience.
I use Duckduckgo for pic searches. I can easily go to the link of the pic. On the other hand, Google takes me to the site containing the pic.
Another concern of mine re Google is –
Say I’m searching re a car. The search results are riddled with carmechanic.com, carexpert.com, moderncar.com, carstoday.com and others. Idk if those are legit. There’s been a lot of misinformation on the Net so I’ve been careful.
laughs in Linux desktop
Why do people continue to put up with this? I don’t get any ads or bloatware like “Paint 3D” or “X Box” on Linux Mint. And Linux desktops are so easy to use now! Blows my mind that people tolerate these antics from Microsoft.
Because Linux has a terrible reputation and has no PR or advertising. People think Linux is overly complicated, has WAY too many distributions to choose from, and there’s absolutely no tech support besides what you can find geeks arguing about on a forum.
People think Linux is overly complicated, has WAY too many distributions to choose from, and there’s absolutely no tech support besides what you can find geeks arguing about on a forum.
As someone who has always used windows since troubleshooting doesn’t sound like a good time for me, you have perfectly hit the nail on the head
It’s the “I’m in this photo and I don’t like it” meme
Community support is a thing, it’s not the lack of support that’s to blame here - have you ever used Microsoft support? Linux support is much more accessible even.
A lot of the blame here, is Microsoft’s clever marketing campaign providing windows to educational institutions - with support - for far below cost, in the early days when pc adoption was on the rise.
Distribution saturation is a barrier to entry and focused support, and it is sometimes more complicated to install and repair. Sometimes it’s easier to repair, because windows is too busy trying to hide its internals from you.
It’s usually easier to support a remote IT-illiterate person using Linux, by comparison to windows, today.
e: I guess to be fair, if you factored in community support for windows, your options open up quite a lot. I was more thinking about my own interactions with their support. But enterprise support/problems are not the same as personal ones.
Yeah, I was talking about perception more than reality
If Apple injected Safari ads into Chrome on macOS…
They would block Chrome entirely if they could get away with it. macOS is so small compared to iOS which already did, so not worth the backlash.
I gotta hand it to Apple for taking one for the team and soaking up all of the EU’s anti-trust efforts. Lets other American tech companies do egregious shit like this. /s
What makes you think Windows wasn’t hit by the DMA? Search it up
First of all fuck Bing and Microsoft. That’s it, comment complete.
Which hole do I fuck this corporation in?
That’s the spirit!
Exactly I’m a tech guy and I don’t give a fuck how many other tech guys say “bing is really good now”, I’m never fucking using it.
Bing is not good now.
I jump search engines regularly trying to find my happy place, and though I never use Bing directly, I do use DDG (which in turn uses Bing), and I’d say about 50% of the time on DDG I have to !bang swap to other platforms because the results just aren’t helpful.
“Bing Is Not Good” 😆
Microsoft continues to make me thankful for switching to Linux. It is refreshing to be able to control your computer experience.
Isn’t that a textbook antitrust violation?
Trust is when two or more companies secretly collude against the interest of customers. That is what you would find in a textbook anyway. This is more an abuse of monopoly.
Yes but Microsoft learned once you start lining the pockets of the right people, nothing happens to you!
The richest companies can probably afford the richest lobbyists
Isn’t that a textbook antitrust violation?
Apparently not. Google is nagging Edge users who visit Google services since years to switch to their “secure web browser with frequent updates” (implying that Edge doesn’t get any, despite being the same Chromium thing as Chrome). (Firefox is exempt because FF defaults to Google Search)
Yeah, but when they get fined 0.004% of their revenue with each violation then it’s hardly even worth worrying about. Legal penalties are basically minor business expenses to these companies - like buying toilet paper for the office bathrooms.
BWAHAHAhahahahaaaaaa! Aiiigh! Oh! Oh man. snif. Haha ha. Ahhhhhh fuck.
Yes. But micro$oft was declared a monopoly 20+ years ago and . . gestures to everything
what, you want reform? It didn’t have the votes.
Microsoft and the government:
USA companies don’t give a shit about antitrust anymore. Look at Amazon and Apple, the only places they get bit for their behavior are the European countries.
the only places they get bit for their behavior are the European countries.
Even then Apple has been barely bothered. The DMA is the first big test, Apple has clearly not complied in spirit, lets see if that’s allowed and nothing changes.
Haven’t seen this in the EU. Anyone knows if this is prevented here?
I’ve seen it in the UK. Another Brexit bonus.
It might be blocked by the DMA, or at least, make Microsoft hesitate about it, since they’re meant to treat all browsers equally, which would also mean not advertising their browser in another browser.
I looked at the links in the source and they’re Windows popups, not Chrome injections. Shitty reporting from the verge.
almost just as scummy though
I don’t disagree but damn, can we get some accurate reporting? No need to lie about how shitty Microsoft can be.
Yeah agreed, that title is literally a lie.
The headline says “stuffing”. This archive 15 minutes before this post was made also says “stuffing”. Stop blaming The Verge for everything, they’ve moved on from that PC fiasco long ago.
Still incorrect, I believe. The pop ups are from Windows. They’re not doing anything to Chrome. Maybe that’s a pedantic technicality but it matters to me, and probably in a legal sense as well.
Microsoft has plenty of shitty practices to report on, including the browser pop ups in windows. There’s no need to lie for clicks. I dunno what the commotion about The Verge is you’re referring to, I’m just commenting on the headline.
Hmm, to me stuffing doesn’t sound like they’re changing Chrome, but I get your point.
It absolutely does?
Stuffing means cramming something into another thing.
Microsoft is stuffing pop-up ads into Google Chrome on Windows again
That’s a blatant lie. Nothing is getting injected/stuffed/whatever synonym-ed into Chrome. It’s a Windows popup.
It’s still a textbook abuse of dominant market position, and therefore illegal, so there’s no need for the article to lie and hand MS and their fans the opportunity to dismiss this reporting as being fake news, which it essentially is.
They control your OS. Instead of just running the program you told it to, it’s checking what program you are running and then displaying a pop-up intended to make them more profit. Functionally, there isn’t really a difference when the OS can already do whatever injected code might want to do.
It’s like if your bank is inserting flyers for their investment services into any safe deposit boxes that include stock certificates and arguing about whether they are picking your lock to get in or just opening a door in the back that gives them access to each box.
You expected better from the verge?
*Laughs in Firefox*
They’re doing this at the OS level, so Firefox can’t protect you from that, the issue is with Windows. They could do the same to Firefox, they just don’t bother.
Well I’m glad I switched to Linux, its only going to get worse.
Like, Christ — this is the kinda shit Microsoft has to do when they are the majority market share of desktop computing?
I hope more users will do the same
Good, let these two horrible browsers fill eachother with bloat until they both fall out.
Laughs in Brave and Librefox
librefox???
“wE VAlue prOviDING oUR CuStomERs With CHOice, So THerE IS An OPtIoN to DisMiss tHE NOTiFiCATiON” - Microsoft responding to Windows Latest regarding this
I don’t understand why anyone uses Windows.
Because it’s the most used system in the world and most programs run on Windows? Why wouldn’t the average user use it when it comes with the machine and it’s rather easy to set up.
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 😉
Work, proprietary software runs shit on linux.
Because some people don’t want to screw around with bash commands that look like Cthulhu incantations, and they can’t afford a Mac.
