Microsoft’s tricks to force people use Bing instead of Google are getting a bit ‘desperate’ 

Bing or Google

Microsoft trying different ways to force people or convince people to move to Bing from Google is not news. The Windows maker has been trying ways to make that happen. Over the years, things have gone from bad to worse and it's getting to the ‘desperate’ territory now.

Google replica in Bing, and it’s not looking fair

While Microsoft’s other attempts at convincing people to use Bing followed most fair competitive and marketing practices, the latest one is something that appears to be tricking people into believing that they are using Google Search and not Bing search.

Recently, I started using Edge web browser and happened to search Google on Bing and that’s where things came as a surprise to me. What happens is that searching Google on Bing or Edge’s URL bar opens up a page that resembles a lot to Google’s Search page with a doodle image on the top and a search bar followed by that.

Microsoft has made sure that people notice that it's not Bing. For instance, there’s a caption at the top that reads “Promoted by Microsoft” And, then there’s a sentence that reads “Every search brings you closer to a free donation for over 2 million nonprofits! Choose Microsoft Bing”

Other than these, there’s nothing that gives away the fact that the entire page – for the time being looks like Google Search, including the top options.

Searching Google on Bing brings Bing search – what about search results?

Somehow, if you’ve managed to figure out that you’ve not landed on Google Search, but camouflaged Bing, that tries hard to be like Google. Microsoft has thought it through though. All you have to do is scroll down to find the search results. But the problem is no indication which tells users that Search results are this way.

Most people won’t be able to figure this out and end up entering the keyword again into the search field shown at the front.

Google vs Bing 

Bing as a search engine does a good job and offers competitive results as well. AI integration on it offers even better results than before. However, Google Search is the most popular search engine in the world and also comes with improvements to offer results that work for people.

The problem is the adoption rate. Microsoft has tried almost everything to stop people from moving to Chrome from Edge or using Google Search instead of Bing Search, in this case. Upon digging deeper into the topic, this Microsoft Bing appearing as a Google thing has been happening for some time now and while reports of this have stopped, I continue to see this issue while trying to access Google.