Microsoft has used a new strategy to discourage you from downloading Chrome from its Edge browser. In Bing’s search results, a fake response from Bing Chat, allegedly generated with artificial intelligence, praised Edge.
You may know it, that moment when you have a new PC running Windows 11. At first, you have to configure it, download the software you use, etc. The step that is done a lot is to download another web browser, not to use Edge, the default one. The most used in the world by far is Google Chrome. That’s why it’s in the publisher’s interest to discourage their customers from switching to Chrome. And in this area, Microsoft is a champion: it recently did it again quite discreetly.
A fake Bing Chat to discourage you from downloading Chrome
The story was told by the journalist of The Verge Sean Hollister, living what we just described. As he entered chromium in Bing, he was greeted by a Bing Chat insert, searching for ” news articles about Bing features “. Following the publication of its article, Microsoft removed this window from Bing Chat.
But according to the journalist, it was not really a response automatically generated by GPT-4. Several clues suggest this. First, the location of the insert: instead of being on the right side, near the answers, it was at the very top, even before the various search results. Also, if the sources are mentioned, no link referred to them. The interest for Microsoft was to promote Bing Chat: as the tool is only available on Edge, it indirectly advertised its browser. A differentiating element that will soon no longer be one: Bing Chat will arrive on other browsers, including Chrome.
The media The Verge was able to get an answer from Microsoft, via the company’s product marketing manager Jason Fischel. He states that the firm regularly experiments with new features and that they can be brief and not reflect the end user experience.
Microsoft’s other strategy to promote Edge
This isn’t Microsoft’s only way of putting off those who want to abandon its web browser in favor of Google’s. For a long time, there is a banner when you enter ” chromium ” Or ” download chrome in Bing. Ironically, this banner is even present when you do this search… from Chrome.
It can be read that ” no need to download a new web browser “. Microsoft claims there a fast, secure and modern web experience that can help you save time and money. More generally, this Microsoft test with Bing Chat still raises new questions about unfair competition and the manipulation of artificial intelligence.
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