Microsoft has added a new window that triggers in Google Chrome on Windows PCs: it prompts you to set Bing as your default search engine. Once again, the company is pushing by encouraging Windows users to use its own search engine.
This is not the first time that this has happened: wherever it can, Microsoft tries to promote Microsoft Edge, its browser, but also Bing, its search engine. This time, it’s an alert that is triggered directly in the Windows version of Chrome.
Microsoft definitely wants you to use Bing, even if it’s on Chrome
It is Windows Latest who reports this story. Journalist Mayank Parmar says he got a pop-up while using Chrome on Windows. It invited him to use Bing as the default engine in Google’s web browser. This is not a virus, but indeed yet another Microsoft campaign, as the company confirmed to the English-speaking media. She specifies that this is a notification “unique» (which implies that it is only supposed to appear once). Enough to also promote the artificial intelligence features of the search engine, including free access to GPT-4, the LLM behind ChatGPT in its “Plus” version.
Microsoft even wants to reward those who accept its request: “For those who choose to set Bing as the default search engine on Chrome, when signed in with the Microsoft account, they also get more chat rounds in Copilot and chat history.»
Advertising probably incompatible with the new rules dictated by the EU
A window that raises questions, particularly at a time when the Digital Markets Act has come into force. As a reminder, this is a European law aimed at restoring fair competition in digital markets. Windows is one of the services that are most monitored by the European Commission and is one of those that must comply with stricter rules, due to its importance.
The addition of this window promoting Bing is further proof that Microsoft is using the popularity of its operating system to promote its other services.