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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

#121

Post by cj »

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 interface.

It's quite entertaining to watch. Google will release a feature, and then a few weeks later Microsoft announces the exact same thing.

Microsoft is learning that copying success is often easier than creating it from scratch. Making their products look identical to Google's makes it a lot easier to switch between the 2.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#122

Post by ocdtrekkie »

szundi wrote: post #86
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…

With all due respect, still feels bs to rationalizing the intentional misleding of these poor people. It is not a coincidence that Google and search is the same in their heads.

Is it bad to mislead these poor people when the outcome is better? Google is not good at returning results and is exceptionally good at directing nontechnical users to malicious ads. Bing is saving people.

If a user is not equipped to determine the difference between Google and Bing, you should not redirect them to a website which is 80% ads.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#123

Post by recursive »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #39

I started a new job where I have to use windows, and more than once I didn’t realize I was using bing until I went to turn on verbatim and it wasn’t an option. Side note, I miss search engines from 20 years ago, I can’t believe it’s gotten this bad.

Kagi is pretty good.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#124

Post by Stagnant »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #22

Never quite understood the hate for Bing. I despise Microsoft, but Bing is fine. It's one of the least shit Microsoft products there is. It definitely wasn't competitive on release, but it's fine now. To be fair I think this is a function of both Bing having gotten better and Google having gotten worse.

I've never used bing that much, but after google removed its cache feature last year, I found myself using bing a lot more often. A couple of weeks back I was so disappointed to find out that Microsoft had pulled the plug on bing's cache as well. I just can't grasp why anyone would think that removing the one feature that gave you edge over the competition was a good idea. AFAIK now the only search engine remaining with a cache is yandex.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#126

Post by not2b »

ed_mercer wrote: post #103
shiveenp wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

More like, they think that deceiving people for profit is genius.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#127

Post by notahacker »

zb3 wrote: post #46
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.

Nothing can keep me on Bing unless the results improve. Or am I the only one who regularily gives Bing a try only to find out the results are irrelevant?

Honestly, I'm under the impression they've converged so much recently I can't be bothered to switch on my work machine, and I don't think this is because Bing is getting better.

I think there are a few areas where Google still has an advantage (if I search with a city name, Google will match results to the city my IP address is located on and not a smaller, less significant one in the United States) but I think their self promotion and AI Q&A bullshit in results is actually worse.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#129

Post by recursive »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #104
Dylan16807 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not obvious to me. People that search for Google probably don't have a solid grasp on what the difference is between Google and a search engine. Perhaps it's muscle memory.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#130

Post by CobrastanJorji »

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…

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 for a Coca-Cola, they're looking for a soda, and in their mind the two are the same.

They likely don't care which soda they're drinking, so I suspect this actually captures a very large amount of soda sales, while still solving the intent of the patron.

What's that? There's a process server outside? Whatever for?

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