Microsoft's Edge browser will display ads for Bing AI when users visit Google's competing Bard

[Spotty]

Summary

People who use Microsoft Edge as their web browser and visit Google's Bard AI chat tool will soon be displayed an advertisement for Microsoft's rival AI chat tool Bing AI. The behaviour has been seen in the latest developer release of the browser. The Edge browser will display the ad in in the browsers URL bar, prompting users to try Microsofts Bing AI tool and compare it against Google's Bard. If a user clicks on the ad they will be taken to a Bing AI page side-by-side the Bard page encouraging people to compare the answer given by Google's Bard to their own Bing AI answer.

 

 

(Images: TheVerge)

 

Quotes

Quote

A developer release of Microsoft’s Edge browser has a new address bar advertisement for the company’s Bing AI — but it only appears when the user goes to its main competitor’s site at bard.google.com.

As pointed out by developer and Twitter user Vitor de Lucca, a new developer version of Edge will now display a new Bing ad next to the Google Bard URL.

When pointing Edge to bard.google.com, a new animated “compare answers with the AI-powered new Bing” slide appears in the upper-right side of Edge’s address bar.

But what seems intrusive can also be clever. What’s different about this new Bing icon is that it activates Microsoft Edge’s new split view so you can literally compare answers with Google’s Bard.

 

This isn't the first time the two have run targeted ads to try and steal market share from their competitor. Windowslatest points out that Google runs similar ads targeting edge users advertising Google Chrome.

Quote

Google aggressively promotes its services, too, just like Microsoft

It’s important to note that Microsoft is not alone in this approach, as Google has also engaged in similar tactics.

Microsoft’s strategy mirrors Google’s past actions, where the search engine giant displayed Chrome ads within Gmail when users accessed the email service using Edge. Google has also been known to promote Chrome through advertisements in Google Search when visited using Edge, showcasing an even more aggressive marketing approach.

 

 

My thoughts

I think this might be a bit divisive. Is it fair game for Microsoft to be using their web browser to advertise and try to steal users from their competitors or is that going too far? Clever marketing tactic or is this going to be another antitrust lawsuit like when Microsoft tried forcing Internet Explorer on everybody?

 

I'm pretty annoyed with Microsoft (Windows) pestering to use their products and services like Edge, Bing, OneDrive, Office... I can see why people will be annoyed by this being another ad for Microsoft products thrown in their face, but I'm also not using Edge browser so this won't really effect me.  Seems pretty scummy to be directly targeting the users of your competitors product like this.

 

The AI chat/search tool is shaping up to be the next big battleground for market share, much like the battle for dominance over web browsers in the 90s and search engines in the 2000s.

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/28/23702274/microsoft-edge-developer-bing-ai-chatbot-advertisement-google-bard

https://www.windowslatest.com/2023/04/28/microsofts-bing-ai-ads-target-google-bard-in-windows-11s-edge-browser/

[Crunchy Dragon]

13 minutes ago, Spotty said:

I'm pretty annoyed with Microsoft (Windows) pestering to use their products and services like Edge, Bing, OneDrive, Office... I can see why people will be annoyed by this being another ad for Microsoft products thrown in their face, but I'm also not using Edge browser so this won't really effect me.  Seems pretty scummy to be directly targeting the users of your competitors product like this.

I'm more or less in the same boat. The first thing I do on any fresh computer is download Firefox.

 

It does get annoying after a while as literally everybody(Apple, Microsoft, Google) try to force you to use their specific browser and search engines.

[Needfuldoer]

30 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Is it fair game for Microsoft to be using their web browser to advertise and try to steal users from their competitors or is that going too far?

The ghost of Netscape Navigator:

 

 

Microsoft has to tread a fine line, since Edge is the default web browser that comes bundled with the de facto standard desktop OS.

[vetali]

Google pesters you to use chrome when you visit google while using edge.... so it doesn't bother me in that regard. I am just tired of the incessant popups of new features and "oh try this!" whenever I use edge. I think edge is a good browser, but the popups are infuriating. Maybe theres a setting, but my work PC is pretty restricted on what I can change.

[Vishera]

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

The ghost of Netscape Navigator

There is a fork of Netscape Navigator that goes by the name SeaMonkey:

[GoodBytes]

That's nice, you get both to compare.

Anyways, I found the Bing cheat to be really impressive. Genetal questions, precise questions, generate content, coding optimization questions.

 

The only thing I found it fail, is the to give an example of French words that has a different gender in different regions. ChatGPT also failed. Probably, because it is all English focused at the moment.

 

Edge on Android and iOS, also has a quick Bing Chat launch button now on the main nav bar.

[Vishera]

41 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Microsoft Edge

This spyware is completely removed from all my systems.

[Spotty]

16 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I'm more or less in the same boat. The first thing I do on any fresh computer is download Firefox.

 

It does get annoying after a while as literally everybody(Apple, Microsoft, Google) try to force you to use their specific browser and search engines.

Even when you try to install another browser (Chrome) Edge will pop up an ad telling you to use Edge instead. Doesn't seem to do it when you visit Firefox's website though. I think it also does it when you try to set another browser as the default as well, but it's been a while since I've had to set my default browser.

 

 

 

Just now, vetali said:

Google pesters you to use chrome when you visit google while using edge.... so it doesn't bother me in that regard.

I think that's different, since you're visiting Google's website and by visiting their website you accept that you will be served ads by Google. Likewise I think if you visit Bing and it pops up with ads for Edge browser or for Bing AI chat then I think that's okay (annoying, but okay), since it's their website and they can put their own ads for their own products on it.

I think this takes it a step too far by displaying ads when you visit a competitors website. If you used Chrome and the web browser popped up with ads for Pixel phones when you visited apple.com I think that would be a problem and Google would definitely be abusing their browsers market position. Ultimately I think the web browser should just serve the content of the website you are visiting without trying to alter it or promote its own products over the top of the website you're visiting.

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

That's nice, you get both to compare.

Bing could give you the option to compare competitors products when you visit their own site... Not the competitors site.

[GoodBytes]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

This spyware is completely removed from all my systems.

Which web browser you suggest. Brave, the web browser everyone talks about, has now always on telemetry data. It also uses Google services for "safe browsing". So your data is with Google.

 

Firefox, has telemetry data as well, enabled by default.

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

Which web browser you suggest. Brave, the web browser everyone talks about, has now always on telemetry data. It also uses Google services for "safe browsing". So your data is with Google.

 

Firefox, has telemetry data as well, enabled by default.

Unlike Chrome and Edge - You can disable the telemetry in both Brave and Firefox.

[divito]

21 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Unlike Chrome and Edge - You can disable the telemetry in both Brave and Firefox.

For the listed telemetry, this is true. However, Brave still sends out lots of requests, uses gstatic, there's Brave Rewards. Firefox has a lot of settings that also need to be turned off. Pretty much every browser will have this. Personally, I use Vivaldi. 

[Arika]

2 hours ago, Vishera said:

This spyware is completely removed from all my systems.

Which implies you're still using Windows... which still has telemetry

[Vishera]

3 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Which implies you're still using Windows... which still has telemetry

I am using a custom Windows image that i made with telemetry and bloat removed.

[HenrySalayne]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Firefox, has telemetry data as well, enabled by default.

Yes, but:

Quote

[...]

4. Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.

[...]

From the Mozilla Manifesto.

 

And Firefox tells you exactly what is used and why and it can be easily turned off:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/

 

Firefox also supports adblockers, multi-account containers and has total cookie protection (restricting cookies to a domain) as standard.

 

You should not blindly trust Mozilla, but they are certainly on a completely different level than Microsoft and Google.

[HenrySalayne]

1 hour ago, Vishera said:

I am using a custom Windows image that i made with telemetry and bloat removed.

I remember it fondly! Wasn't it called "Windows 7"?

[Vishera]

11 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

I remember it fondly! Wasn't it called "Windows 7"?

This is the image i was talking about (I use it on multiple machines):

 

Though i do use Windows 7 sometimes.

[AlTech]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Which web browser you suggest. Brave, the web browser everyone talks about, has now always on telemetry data. It also uses Google services for "safe browsing". So your data is with Google.

 

Firefox, has telemetry data as well, enabled by default.

Firefox's telemetry is nowhere near as bad as using Chrome.

 

2 hours ago, divito said:

For the listed telemetry, this is true. However, Brave still sends out lots of requests, uses gstatic, there's Brave Rewards. Firefox has a lot of settings that also need to be turned off. Pretty much every browser will have this. Personally, I use Vivaldi. 

Well if somebody needs to stay protected against threat actors and active surveillance then the only browser that's the right choice is Tor.

 

Otherwise Firefox is a great option, not only as it is an open source browser but because it actually doesn't have bad defaults for privacy.

 

With Chrome based browsers you are at the mercy of Google's Manifest V3 implementation with no counter measures such as Brave has with built in adblocking (separate to the browser API) and Firefox with no limitations on the adblocking APIs.

[divito]

18 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

With Chrome based browsers you are at the mercy of Google's Manifest V3 implementation with no counter measures such as Brave has with built in adblocking (separate to the browser API) and Firefox with no limitations on the adblocking APIs.

This is effectively true. Brave and Firefox are separate for the most part; Vivaldi addresses this in a blog post as well.

[hishnash]

Given the cost of running both of these assistants very soon they are going to be come very aggressive at selling you stuff (you do not want) and convincing you that you do want it.    

The reason google are not considering using Bard in google assistant is to have it perform fast enough would cost google trillions in power draw along per month. 

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, Vishera said:

Though i do use Windows 7 sometimes.

XP, Vista and 7, all had telemetry data.

Windows 2000 and earlier did not

[Godlygamer23]

5 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I'm more or less in the same boat. The first thing I do on any fresh computer is download Firefox.

 

It does get annoying after a while as literally everybody(Apple, Microsoft, Google) try to force you to use their specific browser and search engines.

I personally use Vivaldi for my main browser, and Firefox as my secondary browser.

[wanderingfool2]

Having it do that I think is crossing the line.

 

I'm okay with Google popping up with use Chrome on the Google homepage, but that's also using the homepage; I think doing it based on browsing is crossing the line.

 

Now if lets say Google started modifying search results to link to Chrome if you are using Edge I would be against it.

[Doobeedoo]

Seems fine though, cool to have such compare. Google pesters more.

[da na]

Not surprised at all. They already display annoying ads when you search any other web browser or search engine, both in Bing and in the browser. Guess they didn't learn from one browser-related antitrust lawsuit?