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Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

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Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#181

Post by CobrastanJorji »

bhelkey wrote: post #147
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclamer - I owned a restaurant that gave Pepsi products to customers who explicitly ask for a Coke. There's probably some debate about whether this is nefarious or genius, but I lean towards the later. "Coke" has always been the number one request from our patrons, and the amount of people who just wanted any soda but said "coke" was wild. there's a very large percentage of poorly palated patrons who aren't looking…

> I owned a restaurant that gave Pepsi products to customers who explicitly ask for a Coke. Did you tell them they were drinking Pepsi or ask some variant of "Is Pepsi okay?"

In response to their request, I said nothing and brought them a red and white paper cup with "Cola" written on it in the Coca-Cola font.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#182

Post by netsharc »

rlpb wrote: post #152

Given the tricks that Google play (or at least played) in hijacking their own search results to scare users into switching to Chrome, I shed no tears here. Google set a new lower standard in deceitful behaviour, and Microsoft are simply following.

Sheesh, if what you say is true I guess decency is headed towards extinction, and even big companies are acting like the supposed con-men sellers of a Middle Eastern bazaar...

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#183

Post by blibble »

jjcm wrote: post #163
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclamer - I owned a restaurant that gave Pepsi products to customers who explicitly ask for a Coke. There's probably some debate about whether this is nefarious or genius, but I lean towards the later. "Coke" has always been the number one request from our patrons, and the amount of people who just wanted any soda but said "coke" was wild. there's a very large percentage of poorly palated patrons who aren't looking…

I definitely get what you're saying - there's an element here of taking what a customer asks for and returning something different, but I think it's an imperfect analogy. It's not bringing them a Coke, it's bringing them a dispenser that says "Cola" next to a fridge with options. For people who just want Cola, it's immediately available. For those with a brand choice, there are additional options. The reality I'm try…

> I definitely get what you're saying - there's an element here of taking what a customer asks for and returning something different

taking money for this is literally Google's business model

search for geico, entire initally visible results page is other insurance companies

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#184

Post by theonemind »

cj wrote: post #121

Fun fact: Microsoft Ads (the place you go to buy ads on Bing) is essentially a carbon copy of Google Ads in every way imaginable. The UI is, quite literally, exactly the same. The names of the features are nearly identical. There is very little differentiation, and it's 100% by design - doing this makes it very easy for marketing people to switch between ad platforms without needing to learn a completely new interfac…

They've always used copying as one of their signature moves, see zune vs ipod, win3/95 vs mac, early Internet explorer based on spyglass/NCSA mosaic, Novell eDirectory vs ActiveDirectory, C# vs Java, F# vs Ocaml, and many more I would have to think hard about and take a long time to remember.

They tend to enter late with a me-too product, whether they copy, acquire, or embrace-extend-extinguish, but copying does play as large a role as any of their strategies, none of which generally involve actual innovation and often lean heavily on illegal, underhanded, or unethical business tactics.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#185

Post by Incipient »

mrayycombi wrote: post #179
comex wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but for the record, if Google wanted to sue, they wouldn’t be completely out of luck. They could make claims under the Lanham Act §1125(a), state unfair competition laws, or other fraud-adjacent laws. But they would have to prove that Microsoft was deceiving customers, and it would be a lot harder without an actual case of trademark infringement. They could also try to claim trademark infringement based on t…

Microsoft has been breaking the law for years and was found guilty of antitrust violations, among others. Bill Gates, the friendly philanthropist, was/is a business criminal. His company hasn't changed. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/microsoft-agrees-pay-20-milli... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_C... . They waged a war of "FUD" against open-source software. https://lxer.com/module/newswir…

The majority of big business is built on varying degrees of fraud, bribery, nepotism, anti-competitive behaviour, etc.

It's just how business is done. If you don't get a leg up on your competitors, they'll get one up on you.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#186

Post by Incipient »

garciasn wrote: post #80
IncreasePosts wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will help determine if you're cheap. How much money have you saved/made through the rewards points stuff?

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

I rarely have to search more than once or twice for a topic, and find the result in the top few links on bing.

But I'm mostly searching for tech stuff. Local content, or answering questions, google is better.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#187

Post by philistine »

mrayycombi wrote: post #179
comex wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but for the record, if Google wanted to sue, they wouldn’t be completely out of luck. They could make claims under the Lanham Act §1125(a), state unfair competition laws, or other fraud-adjacent laws. But they would have to prove that Microsoft was deceiving customers, and it would be a lot harder without an actual case of trademark infringement. They could also try to claim trademark infringement based on t…

Microsoft has been breaking the law for years and was found guilty of antitrust violations, among others. Bill Gates, the friendly philanthropist, was/is a business criminal. His company hasn't changed. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/microsoft-agrees-pay-20-milli... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_C... . They waged a war of "FUD" against open-source software. https://lxer.com/module/newswir…

At this point the events you’re describing are decades ago. To me they are as relevant to the Google and Microsoft of today as saying that Apple is not to be trusted because they messed up the Performa line.

Not irrelevant, but those company are faceless, far bigger, far more insidious than when the events you describe happened.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#188

Post by philistine »

garciasn wrote: post #80
IncreasePosts wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will help determine if you're cheap. How much money have you saved/made through the rewards points stuff?

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

I don’t believe for one second that Google’s results are better. Their market share is so big that no one running SEO scams is looking at their Bing results. So that immediately makes the Bing results far more organic and sane.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#189

Post by Gavin222 »

stemlord wrote: post #176
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.

Bing is a lot better than google for adult content. Bing actually has pretty neat image search tools

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#190

Post by shepherdjerred »

riiii wrote: post #83
Arnavion wrote: post #10

You can also see it for yourself without needing Windows or Edge by opening https://www.bing.com/search?q=google in Linux Chromium for example.

"Fuck Microsoft! Fuck!" -- Dr. Adrian Mallard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zpCOYkdvTQ
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