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Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

pcworld.com

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Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#101

Post by shiveenp »

jjcm wrote: post #82

Disclaimer - I used to work on Bing like... 8 years ago. There's probably some debate around whether this is nefarious or genius, but I'd lead towards the later. "google" has always been one of the number one search terms, and the amount of people who would open chrome, search for google in the address bar, then open google in the google search results, then do their search, was wild. There's a very large percentage…

This comment tells me everything I need to know about the kind of people that work at Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#103

Post by ed_mercer »

shiveenp wrote: post #101
jjcm wrote: post #82

Disclaimer - I used to work on Bing like... 8 years ago. There's probably some debate around whether this is nefarious or genius, but I'd lead towards the later. "google" has always been one of the number one search terms, and the amount of people who would open chrome, search for google in the address bar, then open google in the google search results, then do their search, was wild. There's a very large percentage…

This comment tells me everything I need to know about the kind of people that work at Microsoft.

Which is... that they're all geniuses?

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#104

Post by ClassyJacket »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #54
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not actually making a google search if they use that search field. Microsoft is just presenting another Bing search field when people search "google" and showing that at the top of the page instead of the link they are ostensibly looking for.

And what fraction of the people this affects do you think care about the difference? What fraction even know the difference? My guesses are not very big.

If they didn't care about the difference they obviously wouldn't have searched for Google in the first place

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#105

Post by KTibow »

norman784 wrote: post #89
garciasn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far less than the time saved had they received Google's results instead of Bing's inferior ones.

Are Google results good? I stop using Google years ago because of the garbage results (a lot of spam sites that were just serving data crawled from Github and other sites).

I've went through a few stints of using Bing. Eventually I end up starting all my queries with `@google`.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#106

Post by mlekoszek »

ballenf wrote: post #8

I bet this is 100x+ more effective at keeping people on Bing than anything else MS has tried. Same idea as knock-off brands with labels and designs inspired by the name brand. People may eventually realize they're not on Google, but probably only after being not displeased in Bing's results. If they have a bad experience, oh well, they were planning on using google anyway.

They're really using every tactic they can -- and for the life of me, I have no idea why. They've pushed so hard, for so long, to make Bing succeed -- even forcing it in the Start menu -- and it's still not owning the search space.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#107

Post by meltyness »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #55

I'm surprised more startups don't just copy the most famous landing page of all time.

I was wondering why Google hadn't replaced 'I'm Feeling Lucky' with something to do with LLMs, or just added an LLM-generate option. I came to the conclusion that they're in corporate denialism over the whole thing. They'd be happier if their finger slipped and made Anthropic and OpenAI vanish until they could resurface and capture the market. Possibly not a great strategy.

It seems all of their years of letting the open web decay and vanish has caught up with the fact that many requests can be serviced with an inverse thesaurus manual snippet soup.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#108

Post by RajT88 »

jjcm wrote: post #82

Disclaimer - I used to work on Bing like... 8 years ago. There's probably some debate around whether this is nefarious or genius, but I'd lead towards the later. "google" has always been one of the number one search terms, and the amount of people who would open chrome, search for google in the address bar, then open google in the google search results, then do their search, was wild. There's a very large percentage…

It can be both. And it is.

Machiavellian, even.

https://ianchadwick.com/machiavelli/chapters-15-21/chapter-1...

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#109

Post by tokioyoyo »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #87
jjcm wrote: post #82

Disclaimer - I used to work on Bing like... 8 years ago. There's probably some debate around whether this is nefarious or genius, but I'd lead towards the later. "google" has always been one of the number one search terms, and the amount of people who would open chrome, search for google in the address bar, then open google in the google search results, then do their search, was wild. There's a very large percentage…

If they didn't care what search engine they were using, would it be necessary to make it look so much like the google homepage?

Older people don’t understand the idea of “search engine”, they understand “google”. They don’t realize you can “google” through Bing as well. I hate it, but it is what it is.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#110

Post by jhanschoo »

If MS hasn't changed the result in the meantime, the screenshot in the article is slightly dishonest by omission. The journalist has manipulated the browser window's size and scrolled down a bit so that only the "promoted result" is visible and without any indication. The journalist's characterization

> Before you scroll down to the actual search results, you’re presented with an all-white page with a centered, unbranded search bar and a multicolored doodle above it that’s heavy on yellow, red, blue, and green.

is dishonest.

In actuality, Google-like interface appears as a full-width promoted result/ad before the organic results. There is vaguely the words "Promoted by Microsoft" by the top-left, and a 'X' by the top-right. For large enough viewports, the 'X' and organic search results are visible. The "Promoted by Microsoft" is visible without scrolling at any size.

Note nevertheless that the journalist has also failed to point out a particular interaction that would support their thesis. For searches that trigger this "promotion", the window immediately scrolls the page so that the promotion is aligned to the top of the viewport, and the search bar in the promotion is focused. (The "Promoted by Microsoft" is visible without scrolling at any size.)

If one is logged in (and on Edge?), this promotion is still present, but as a tiny search box before the organic results.

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