Desperate for Bing Users, Microsoft Creates Sneaky Search Interface That Looks Like Google
You have to give Microsoft some credit for not giving up in search, but it does not seem Bing has ever quite been the success that it hoped. Google remains far and away the largest search engine in the world, despite some sentiment that its quality has declined over recent years. Bing meanwhile remains the butt of jokes, most of its traffic likely coming from users who have not changed the defaults on their Windows computer.
Since losing out in the mobile wars, Microsoft has been left with pleading Windows users to stick to its services—the Edge browser is installed by default, and as users try to install Chrome or switch to Google, pop-ups implore them to please, please give Edge and Bing a chance (the company has also shoved ads into Windows at the system-level, much to the chagrin of users). Microsoft is now trying a new, more inconspicuous strategy to keep users on Bing: When someone types “Google” into the Edge search bar, they are hit with a reskinned version of Bing that is made to look almost exactly like Google. Visit Bing and try it for yourself.
This type of strategy is sometimes called a “dark pattern,” or a deceptive pattern that tricks users into doing something they did not intend. Below the Google-looking search bar, including a Google Doodle-esque cartoon, regular Bing results are displayed.
