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Today's Topics:
1. Bing nudges users to use its search results by disguising
them as Google's. (Stephen Loosley)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:45:25 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Bing nudges users to use its search results by
disguising them as Google's.
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Someone caught Bing tricking people into thinking it was Google, and it's a
little concerning
By Simon Batt Jan 6, 2025
https://www.xda-developers.com/bing-tricking-people-google/
Summary
Microsoft is mimicking Google by making Bing search results look like Google's
homepage.
Bing nudges users to use its search results by disguising them as Google's.
Bing hides its search bar and categories to make visitors think they are on
Google's webpage.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Microsoft has been passing
Google some seriously big compliments lately. A few months ago, Microsoft was
copying Google's homework by adopting a lot of Chrome's features into Edge in
hopes of getting people to change browsers.
Now, if you use Bing to search for Google, it'll do its best Google impression
and hope you won't notice.
Microsoft Bing really doesn't want you to use Google
As spotted by Windows Latest, it seems that Microsoft is getting annoyed that
people are using Bing to search for Google. This likely happens when someone
boots up Edge but doesn't want to use Bing to search the web, so they punch in
"Google" into the Edge new tab screen to get to where they want to go.
Windows Latest noted that if you use Bing to search for Google, you'll be taken
to a page that looks suspiciously like Google. Don't be fooled; this is just a
Bing results page with a huge search box stuck on the top. Using the search box
will take you to the Bing search results for your query.
The Google lookalike on Bing
I gave it a try myself, and sure enough, Microsoft is definitely doing
something shady here. If you want to see for yourself, head over to Bing and
search for "Google." You'll notice that Bing will pull up a search result with
a Google look-alike at the top. It'll also nudge the page down just enough to
hide the Bing search bar and categories so you think you're on Google's page.
You can get rid of the fake Google by clicking the X at the top-right of the
search graphic, after which it will never appear again; however, you can force
it to reappear by visiting Bing in an Incognito window.
Either way, I hope trickery doesn't become Microsoft's main tactic to get
people using Bing. After all, it is sitting on some excellent AI search tools .
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember
to keep it respectful.
Reply / Post
Pavan
The problem with Bing is that the results are not in line with the
expectations. While google provides the expected search results, Bing results
are just not what I want. So even if I happen to search in Bing initially, I
curse myself looking at the results and quickly switch to google for better
results..
2025-01-06 11:22:52
2
Denis
They do it for the Youtube video as well. You search for something on Bing,
it's a Youtube video and instead of being taken to Youtube video page, you end
up with a YouTube video running in something that looks like a cheap YouTube
page knockoff, just with a Microsoft Video instead of a YouTube logo.
2025-01-07 12:32:26
Pubcon
This is over a decade old. They tweak it every couple of years. The only thing
new - is someone noticed it.
2025-01-06 16:26:11
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