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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

#71

Post by IncreasePosts »

spacemanspiff01 wrote: post #65
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.

Maybe I am cheap, but I have been using bing because of their rewards points stuff, at least then I get paid for my data.

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

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#72

Post by Tistron »

Looking at it charitably, it doesn't seem very different than going to some outdoor shop NatureLand(r), asking for a Thermos and them showing you a NatureLand(r) thermo flask. Sure, maybe you really wanted a thermo flask of the Thermos brand, but most people just want an insulated bottle for tea or some such.

I mean, I wouldn't react more to somebody saying that they googled something with bing than I react when somebody offers me tea but it's herbal infusion. I'll have some reaction that is wrong, but it's also expected and common.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#73

Post by jokethrowaway »

_mlbt wrote: post #48
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.

DuckDuckGo has served me pretty well for the past couple of years. Also, their AI offering duck.ai is pretty solid as well.

It's my daily driver too. Quality is ok but not as good as Google from a few years ago. Snippets (especially code) and shortcuts are cool. It's less censored than Google, but then they went on and censored russian propaganda during the war.

They completely lost all their credibility. I don't care how bad or good the content it is, I want a service without censorship.

For copyrighted content they are a bit better than Google but worse than Yandex - simply because 90% of DMCA strikers agencies bother reporting a google search result, 50% bother with duckduckgo, 10% bother with Yandex.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#75

Post by foobiekr »

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.

Honestly whatever the hell Google offers at this point has been disguising itself as google search for years. It sure as shit is not what people expect from google.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#76

Post by lupusreal »

Sephr wrote: post #50
lupusreal wrote: post #42

Bing earns my use simply by virtue of them not captcha-hell banning me for having privacy features enable and using a VPN. Google can go to hell.

Both companies are known for highly invasive tracking.

Bing lets me search even though I block their cookies, trackers, etc. Google doesn't. If I even wanted to use Google I'd have to go through the hassle of whitelisting their crap, and for what?

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#77

Post by ralferoo »

interestica wrote: post #58

This only happens if one searches for “google” in the Bing search bar. This is less deception and more a fun dig. Try searching for “askew” in google.

Entirely changing the format of the results page based on a keyword match for a competitor is very much deception. Although they've been doing similar for years when you search for Chrome as the very first thing you do on a new install and there the entire screen is basically full of tricks to try to make you stay on Edge and pushing the actual search results down so far you need to scroll. I guess they've got away with that a long time, they probably don't think anyone will care.

It all feels a bit like the "I'm feeling lucky" button from years ago on Google when it was kind of the default choice for everyone because back then Google actually cared about putting the most useful page at the very top...

Remember when one of the best tricks was searching "French military victories" and pressing "I'm feeling lucky" took you to a page that looked exactly like the google results but said "No results found, maybe you meant 'French military defeats'". Classic stuff!

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#78

Post by PessimalDecimal »

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.

The only other search query I have found that provides a similar "spoofed Google" look is https://www.bing.com/search?q=yandex.

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#79

Post by londons_explore »

zb3 wrote: post #49

I'll immediately switch to Bing if you allow me to search by regex, or at least "literally literally".

true regex search of the internet is a "more compute than on all of earth" type problem.

They could at least get closer tho...

Re: Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers

#80

Post by garciasn »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #71
spacemanspiff01 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I am cheap, but I have been using bing because of their rewards points stuff, at least then I get paid for my data.

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.
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