Microsoft really, really wants you to try its new Edge browser for
Windows 10—so much so that it’s urging Bing users to give it a go.
VentureBeat reported Friday that
if you do a Bing search for the Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, Bing
will helpfully note that “Microsoft recommends Microsoft Edge for
Windows 10.” Because of course it would. When you click the “Learn more”
button, you’ll get whisked away to a webpage extolling some of Edge’s
features, such as its annotation tool, Cortana integration, and
distraction-eliminating “Reading view.”
Searching for Firefox on Windows 10—using the Edge browser, no less.
As you might expect, the banner urging you to use Edge only appears on
Windows PCs—searching for Chrome and Firefox on my Mac yielded no
banner, but running the same search from a Windows 10 PC resulted in the
black stripe above search results—even when searching from Edge.
Why this matters: Despite the hype and Windows 10’s fast start, Edge browser usage has tailed off since Microsoft launched its new OS back in late July. Microsoft isn’t the first to promote their browser in search engines, as MarketingLand points out:
If you visit Google.com from a competing browser, you’ll be presented
with a box that urges you to download Google Chrome. Still, given Edge’s
place in the market, it does make Microsoft look a little desperate.
This story, "Microsoft uses Bing to coax would-be browser switchers towards Windows 10's Edge " was originally published by
PCWorld.
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