Newsletter Archives

• Will Microsoft forcibly change the Chrome default search engine to Bing?

  Posted on January 22, 2020 at 07:43 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Is this “Office as a Service,” or just another poorly worded Microsoft announcement?

  I’m getting lots of questions about a bizarre but official post from ‘Softie Daniel Brown entitled Microsoft Search in Bing and Office 365 ProPlus. In it, Microsoft seems to be saying that everyone who installs the latest patch for Office 365 ProPlus will have their default search engine in Google Chrome changed to Bing.

  Starting with Version 2002 of Office 365 ProPlus, an extension for Microsoft Search in Bing will be installed that makes Bing the default search engine for the Google Chrome web browser. This extension will be installed with new installations of Office 365 ProPlus or when existing installations of Office 365 ProPlus are updated.

  Pardon me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

  By making Bing the default search engine, users in your organization with Google Chrome will be able to take advantage of Microsoft Search, including being able to access relevant workplace information directly from the browser address bar. Microsoft Search is part of Microsoft 365 and is turned on by default for all Microsoft apps that support it.

  First of all, “Version 2002” is Microsoft’s incredibly stupid way of saying the February 2020 update to Office 365 Pro Plus. It’ll be available to the bleeding edge in February, but normal folks (on the “Semi-Annual Channel branch,” you gotta love the terminology) won’t see it until July.

  After the extension for Microsoft Search in Bing is installed, your users will see a Welcome screen. For example, the Welcome screen in Google Chrome looks similar to this:

  

  Can they do that?

  Not all devices with Version 2002 or later will receive the extension right away. That’s because we’re gradually rolling out this change, first to new installations and then to existing installations. So if you’re installing or updating to Version 2002 or later, and the extension isn’t installed, that is probably expected and not necessarily an error. It’s likely a future installation or update will install the extension and set Bing as the default search engine for Google Chrome.

  That’s either the worst Microsoft announcement I’ve seen this year — or it’s an incredible overstepping of antitrust proportions that deserves fire and brimstone.

  Do you read the announcement any differently? Is this perhaps an opt-in kind of thing, where you have to activate the extension (which is dirty pool, too, don’t get me wrong)? Or is Microsoft going to roll out Bing as the default search engine in Chrome for everybody who’s getting Office ProPlus … as a Service, of course.

  UPDATE: Catalin Cimpanu, over at ZDNet, is under the impression that this is for real — that Office 365 ProPlus will hijack your Chrome browser search engine. He goes over MS’s published methods for preventing the hijacking.

  Where’s the outrage? Or is this the new normal?

  Office News, Windows News Bing, Chrome default search engine, Office 365 ProPlus

• Hoffman: Bing results are racist, antisemitic, pedophiliaic, conspiratorial

  Posted on October 10, 2018 at 08:11 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I didn’t believe it until I tried some of the searches myself. Google comes up clean, but Bing barfs big-time.

  Chris Hoffman at How-To Geek: Bing Is Suggesting the Worst Things You Can Imagine

  Microsoft has a responsibility to clean up Bing. A major search engine (and especially one that is increasingly becoming a harder-to-turn-off default built into Windows 10) shouldn’t be suggesting its users search for racist garbage and images of underage children.

  Wonder if Satya has seen this? Bing’s come a long way since he was in charge.

  Other Bing

• Search engine market share – Bing and Yahoo neck-and-neck

  Posted on August 8, 2017 at 08:02 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Add this to the long list of things I didn’t know.

  A tweet from @teroalhonnen led me to poke around the usage statistics for web search engines. Of course, Google’s far out in front. But I didn’t realize that Bing and Yahoo are neck-and-neck. Yahoo, for heaven’s sake.

  Statcounter says in July, Google ran 92% of market share, Bing was 2.55% and Yahoo 2.23%.

  The big Chinese search engine Baidu (which is probably underrepresented in the results) came in at 1.44% and Russian giant Yandex (also likely underrepresented) was 0.89%. Remember that Statcounter only tallies hits on web sites that it monitors, and, unlike Netmarketshare, doesn’t try to jiggle the figures for parts of the world that it doesn’t cover so well.

  Bing’s been on a downhill spiral for the past five years. In July 2012, its share stood at 2.96%. In July 2014, it ran all the way up to 3.84%. Last month’s 2.55% was the lowest score ever.

  This in spite of the fact that Bing’s the default search engine — and bloody difficult to change — on Edge in particular, and all versions of Windows 10 in general.

  Other Bing

• Cortana should be dancing in the streets

  Posted on September 29, 2016 at 13:46 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Qi Lu leaves, Cortana and Bing to Shum, Office and Pall’s Skype go to Jha: This morning saw a breathtaking push to put Cortana in the driver’s seat.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  Microsoft News Bing, Cortana, Gurdeep Sing Pall, Harry Shum, Office Products Group, Qi Lu, Rajesh Jha, Skype

• Cortana now restricted to Edge and Bing: It’s the clicks, stupid

  Posted on April 29, 2016 at 08:28 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Likely the #1 way for Microsoft to make money off Windows 10.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows.

  Uncategorized Bing, Cortana, Edge

• Windows 10 search and Bing

  Posted on January 21, 2016 at 15:13 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Fascinating mail from AA:

  I am a reluctant Windows 10 user (at work).

  When I use the Windows 10 search box at work, the default view when I click the box is to see a bunch of tiles about what is “popular now”.  To me this a distraction, so I typed the following string into the search panel:    “dont show bing news in search panel windows 10”.

  When my browser pops up (Chrome, with Google search set as its default search tool, but ignored in this case), I get a very Bing-centric set of responses, but no answers.

   

   

  If I open my browser on my own, and perform the same search directly, I get a very different (and more useful) response.

  

  This is not a gripe about how disable Bing – I know how to do that now.    But it’s disappointing to know that Bing’s answers are seemingly adulterated.  Sigh.

  As always, thanks for being a voice of sanity in the land of Windows.

  Other Bing, Google

• Want to work on Bing?

  Posted on May 17, 2013 at 21:41 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Have I got an Easter Egg for you.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch.

  Windows News Bing, Easter Egg

• Note to Satya Nadella: Bing needs you

  Posted on April 7, 2011 at 04:07 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If you look at US market share, Bing (and its partner in arms, Yahoo) have a respectable 30% share of the search engine market. But that share has gone nowhere in the past year.

  Internationally it’s a different story. Bing’s hit a whopping 3.9% share, and it’s not headed anywhere soon.

  Why? Several possibilities. See my InfoWorld Tech Watch post.

  Microsoft News Bing
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