Microsoft does so many scammy things when it comes to trying to prevent people from using Chrome/Google. Even though Edge/Bing hasn’t caught on, I really think them abusing windows dominate OS position this way should be enough for an antitrust lawsuit.
Microsoft Bing is trying to spoof Google UI when people search Google.com
Submitted 4 months ago by dantheclamman@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not just Google. There was a performance “bug” in Windows Defender a while back that specifically harmed Firefox. It had been reported but Microsoft took 5+ years to fix.
Now, whether MS were intentionally crippling a competitor’s browser in the beginning when the bug surfaced, there’s no way to know.
But after a certain point, a software company with a market cap in the trillions loses any benefit of doubt I’d give them in scenarios like this where it benefits them not to find a solution. And 5 years is far beyond that point.
Unfortunately for Firefox, they didn’t really have the money for a lawsuit against a juggernaut like Microsoft.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
I was installing chrome on a work computer, and windows defender was automatically flagging the chrome installer (official, directly from google) as malware and deleting it automatically as soon as it was downloaded. It wasn’t blacklisted for very long, I was able to download it without issues the next day, but I always have wondered if that was something they were testing out on purpose or not.
MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’m having antitrust deja vu. Anybody else?
Veneroso@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Hope for EU sanctions because it’s going to be a rubber stamp for at least the next four years in the US.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Usual Microsoft, using shady tactics instead of creating a better product or just focusing on their own thing. They should grow up sometime.
dantheclamman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They seem to pathologically not be able to help themselves, even with products that don’t need to be promoted that way. I used Outlook for Android for years because it was actually quite good. Had a multi account inbox view, true dark mode, Galaxy Watch compatibility when those were all rather unusual features. But then they started trying to put Bing search in my long press menu system wide, using Outlook as the Trojan horse to do so, and I just found that too obnoxious
tibi@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I don’t think they can. They would need to rethink their company culture, but because the current one makes big numbers go up, they don’t really have to change anything.
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This is a genius move to keep you from Google search
Seems more like a genius move to get slapped with another antitrust lawsuit.
Feelfold@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Corps don’t give a fuck about an antitrust law suit. In the US, the party that pays the most to jerk off CEOs just got put in charge. Even if it was the other party, who only pays slightly less, the most extreme fines are a slap on the wrist. Hell, come Jam 20th it’ll probably a tax write off.
Until the EU levies fines that would kneecap these companies out of business, there is no incentive to change the behavior.
sandwichsaregood@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I mean the original lawsuit was for aggressively bundling Internet Explorer and kneecapping other browsers. Which sure sounds a lot like minor variation what they’ve been doing with Edge and Bing for a while now, without consequences. Antitrust enforcement is not something I have a lot of confidence in for the foreseeable future.
seven_phone@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This is a search engine showing open evidence of skewing results away from true for their own motivations. Slightly comic when it is Microsoft doing it to Google but if they do this so blatantly how else are they more subtly redirecting our searches towards biased or even false results that benefit them and misinform the user.
humble_pete_digger@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Don’t care.
They can fuck with google for all I care.Google is shady af
antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
Yeah tbh, it’s just two shady companies trying to out-cheat each other.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Who do you think the actual loser is in that case? Because I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t Microsoft or Google.
BangCrash@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The single thing Google did right when they first came out was a clean UI with a search bar on an uncluttered page.
At the time the competitors had search pages cluttered with ads and news. It was so bad you couldn’t think.
If Microsoft makes their search nice to look at them it’s going to get many more users
airportline@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
DuckDuckGo and Kagi managed to figure this out. Bing is the odd one out.
lipilee@feddit.nl 4 months ago
Honestly, that’s actually smart and nobody is hurt here. Google by now is as shit as Bing, so there’s nothing wrong with using B instead of G. Let them downvotes come :)
Buffalox@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Misleading users is definitely harmful. Since this is done on purpose, I’d say it’s malicious.
lipilee@feddit.nl 4 months ago
yeah, you’re right, actually. if I have to fit this somewhere in my framework of things, it’d fall in the “dark pattern” box. so per definition it’s actually malicious.
lowleveldata@programming.dev 4 months ago
It’s malicious and I like it. What’s more entertaining than watching giants fight?
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 4 months ago
Is Google really as shit as Bing? I had to Ask Jeeves to confirm that.
Taleya@aussie.zone 4 months ago
Dogpile and save time
madcaesar@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Honestly G might be worse than B at this point
Mwa@lemm.ee 4 months ago
and yet Network Service still makes people use Google + ddg has better search quality
const_void@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Bing/Microsoft are so scummy lately
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy! But an enemy I like to watch.
qevlarr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
BlindFrog@lemmy.world 4 months ago
BitsAndBites@lemmy.world 4 months ago
lol, I just watched this movie this week
qevlarr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Does it hold up in 2025?
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
jaxiiruff@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
Microsoft is a pathetic little husk of a company, what a corny and predatory practice that not even google cares to do if you search other search engines.
Mwa@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Besides Privacy DDG is wayy better then google + It has a better search quality.
toynbee@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I prefer DDG to either as well, but in terms of search quality … Don’t they use Bing search results?
Mwa@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Yes they use Bing but i think they did some adjustments to improve the search quality (Correct me if am wrong)
conartistpanda@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I disagree with the quality part.
Rinox@feddit.it 4 months ago
Wait, is Microsoft using Google’s copyrighted work on their page without authorization? This is going to get pulled so fast they’re gonna get whiplash.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 months ago
which has become a synonym for search engines or finding answers online.
If you’re my age, sure. But it’s crap.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Remember when they proved that bing was just providing google search results?
Like it straight up sent your search query to google search and fed back the results in the bing skin.
viking@infosec.pub 4 months ago
I’ll need a source for that.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 months ago
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12343597#:~:text="W….
Quick google search. First result. From 2011
Buffalox@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Just try yourself, the claim is obviously false.
www.bing.com/search?pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR&q=bullshi…
www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=bullsh…The results here are nothing alike.
Her I have the first result on Google being “Prime video”, which does not occur on the first page of Bing.
On Bing the first result is Wikipedia English, where Google has Wikipedia Danish as 2nd result, and the English not occuring on first page.Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This was back in 2011
airportline@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
They should probably just make that the default homepage at this point
Taleya@aussie.zone 4 months ago
Remember how much they just announced they were plowing into AI? The Machine Hungers
FundMECFS@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
Kind of fucked up but tbf Google does similarly shady stuff.
Please just use duckduckgo (or SearX).
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 4 months ago
DDG is just Bing under the hood
FundMECFS@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
And Searx is the same. And startpage is just google.
But the point is they don’t track.
gregor@gregtech.eu 4 months ago
I host my own SearXNG instance, which miiiight be a bit of a bad idea because the anonymity of the crowd disappears but hosting your own services is way too cool to ignore. It’s at search.gregtech.eu in case anyone wants to use it.
vinyl@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Pretty impressed, very accurate informationLargest manufacturer in the world.
FundMECFS@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
Hahha GregSearX I love it!
I’ve used searX in the past and found it was decent but personally I am going to stick with duckduckgo because it just works better for my needs (especially since I’m on mobile).
kratoz29@lemm.ee 4 months ago
What I don’t like about SearXNG (aside of no favicons/icons I think) is that it doesn’t show the content of what I am looking for in the browser desktop tabs, if I search for “Linux” in the tab it is only shown “SearXNG” instead of what I am searching for… That definitely kills my browsing habits… I hope I am being clear (can’t post a screenshot right now), also unsure if it was the same with mobile browsers.
steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
So then you can track my searches?
nef@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
This is nothing like GregTech! Where’s the tedious microcrafting to enjoy before every search?
moe93@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
How did you change the logo? I tried to do that on my instance and failed miserably. Running it through docker.
dan@upvote.au 4 months ago
SearX is dead; you should use SearXNG now.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
I feel like Microsoft is way more shameless about their shady stuff. They’ve been messing around with impersonating google/chrome for awhile now, they recently had that thing where they would copy all your open chrome tabs, and then when you started your computer it would open edge with all your chrome tabs to trick people into using edge instead.
vinyl@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They aren’t afraid of people complaining about them, they are afraid of the government, and they fulfill a hefty amount of contracts for the gov
vinyl@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I would use anything else before DDG, the primary function of it which is searching, generally feels sucky