Microsoft is once again relying on annoying pop-ups in Google's Chrome browser to encourage users to switch from the core application of the market leader and competitor to its own search engine Bing. The corresponding ad encourages Chrome users in bold letters to use Bing search instead of Google. “Chat for free with GPT-4 on Chrome!” is how the software giant sensationally advertises the offer. “Get hundreds of chat sessions every day with Bing Al.” If you click “Yes”, the Chrome extension “Bing Search” is installed, making Microsoft's search engine the default application.
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Battle of the pop-ups
According to Windows users, there is then a real battle of ads popping up in the form of a rabbit-hedgehog race. “Do you want to change your search provider?” asks the Microsoft pop-up. “The 'Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome' extension has changed the search on bing.com,” warns Chrome. Directly below there is a Windows notification that is already aimed at Google's counterattack: “Wait – don't change it again! If you do this, you will deactivate Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome and lose access to Bing Al with GPT-4 and DALL-E 3. Select 'Keep' to stay with Microsoft Bing.”
“This is a one-time notification that gives people the opportunity to set Bing as their default search engine in Chrome,” a Microsoft spokeswoman told US portals The Verge and Windows Latest. She described the pop-up as an offer for Windows users to get more free chat sessions via the AI application Copilot. The US group further emphasized: “We attach great importance to offering our customers options. Therefore, there is the option of rejecting the notification.”
Server-side update is suspected as the cause
The software giant first introduced pop-up prompt ads last year that appear on top of other apps and windows, reminding critics of malware. After Microsoft initially stopped this form of notification to rule out “unintentional behavior”, the banners returned again in Windows 10 and 11. To date, there is no known simple way to prevent such pop-ups from being activated. According to Windows Latest, the current campaign involves a “server-side update,” which is not part of a general Windows update. Apparently the advertising is related to the processes BCILauncher.EXE and BingChatInstaller.EXE, which Microsoft is said to have added to some Windows systems on March 13th.
Mozilla recently complained that Microsoft was repeatedly using “harmful” design tricks such as “dark patterns” to force Microsoft Edge on Windows users and dissuade them from using competing browsers such as Firefox or Chrome. If a user wants to download and install a new browser, the company relies on the patterns of “pre-selection”, “visual interference”, “disguised advertising” and tricky wording to distort the choices. It is a “deliberate and sustained campaign” by Microsoft.
(bme)