back to article Microsoft defends barging in on Chrome with pop-up ads pushing Bing, GPT-4

Microsoft is cheerily popping up adverts over Chrome on Windows PCs to push its search engine and AI assistant. As users have pointed out this week, while using Google's desktop browser on Windows 10 or 11, a dialog box suddenly and irritatingly appears to the side of the screen urging folks to make Microsoft's Bing the …

  1. elDog

    Microsoft's actions remind me of a past romance that really, really wants you to come back

    At first it's just cute little emails and then it becomes stalking.

    1. Yorick Hunt Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft's actions remind me of a past romance that really, really wants you to come back

      Time to hide your pet rabbit!

      1. msknight

        Re: Microsoft's actions remind me of a past romance that really, really wants you to come back

        Tim: Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

        Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!

        Tim: He'll do you up a treat, mate. I'm warning you! He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!

        King Arthur: Go on, Bors. Chop his head off!

        Sir Bors: Right! Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin' right up!

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Microsoft's actions remind me of a past romance that really, really wants you to come back

      "We value providing our customers with choice, so there is an option to dismiss the notification."

      [who ELSE remembers GWX?]

  2. LosD

    Not the only thing they did recently. Teams now have a new setting that auto defaults to open links in Edge instead of your preferred browser. I guess we should be happy that you can change it this time.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Teams

      Ah yeah, they started doing that last year, as we reported.

      C.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Likewise, Outlook for Android (it's a "managed" work phone, I don't have a choice) asks me EVERY DAY if I want to make O365 the default app to open PDFs. EVERY DAY I click no and the next day it ASKS AGAIN. How many time do I have to tell it no? For all eternity, it seems. All it does is make me hate MS even more. Unfortunately, as far as my job is concerned, I can avoid them.

      1. andrewj

        Yes and it keeps the notification open on top of the document you are trying to read, constantly reminding me to never, on pain of death, allow it to install O365 on my phone.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "I can avoid them."

        Oops, typo alert! Should read "can't" avoid them at work :-/

  3. alain williams Silver badge

    How is this not illegal ?

    Yet another reason to be thankful that I use Linux.

    1. David 132 Silver badge

      Re: How is this not illegal ?

      Oh, I'm sure the various national competition regulators will eventually stir from their torpor and look into this; after a 10-year investigation, they may eventually find Microsoft guilty and as a penalty, announce that from 2036 onwards Microsoft is not allowed to promote Bing in Windows 10 or 11 anymore. And Microsoft, by then hard at work on the 36H2 release of Windows 14, will look suitably chastened and promise to stop doing that, as they try to keep a straight face...

    2. FIA Silver badge

      Re: How is this not illegal ?

      Because unlike the 90s, they're have 5% market share, not 95%.

      To be fair to MS they're only doing what Google did, we forget it now, but if you go on Sourceforge and download something from the mid 2000s, it's a very good chance the installer will offer to install (and set to default) chrome for you.

      1. Bendacious Silver badge

        Re: How is this not illegal ?

        Google still do this. When I use Google Maps or YouTube, I often see a message that the experience is much better in Chrome. This is less intrusive than someone hijacking your operating system, although I've never tried to install Firefox on ChromeOS. They are all happy to abuse their dominance and pay the one hour of profit fine later.

  4. James O'Shea Silver badge

    One more reason

    to never use Chrome. And, besides, my default search engine is DuckDuckGo.

    Firefox Forever!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One more reason

      I wish. But we Firefox users are an endangered species. With a market share that's collapsed to about 3% the future isn't looking good.

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        Re: One more reason

        If the Firefox developers would stop fucking about with the UI and breaking stuff then they might keep more users.

      2. captain veg Silver badge

        Re: 3% market share

        That's bad, but so what? It's free, right?

        -A.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: One more reason

      A rumor (that I just now started) has it that Mozilla will be funded with secret Micros~1 money, like Gnome, and after a silent coup d'etat will be JUST AS HEINOUS as CHROME and Edge...

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

        Re: One more reason

        When they show me an advert I close the app every time.

  5. VicMortimer Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Chrome? You get what you deserve.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/08/28/stop-using-google-chrome-on-windows-10-android-and-apple-iphones-ipads-and-macs/

    2021.

    You should have deleted Chrome years ago. If you're still using that garbage, you get what you deserve.

  6. Ilgaz

    "Ballmer leftover gang"

    There is still a fraction at MS acting like it is 1998 which they claimed Linux doesn't even properly support USB.

    I just installed ms-edge to openSUSE TW via Terminal and I noticed my default browser has been set to Edge. This is the only instance a developer abuses the "default apps" mechanism of UNIX desktop. That should give a clue about my claim. Ballmer ideology is still wandering around at MS.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Chrome used to do the same thing

    If you used any browser but Chrome, www.google.com would prompt you to install chrome...every..fucking..time.

    1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

      Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

      At least that's just their website doing it, not the fucking operating system of your computer.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

      I don't know about google.com, I've never seen that on google.co.uk. I suppose it could be the ad-blocker handling that, of course.

      1. Vometia has insomnia. Again. Silver badge

        Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

        Same, only with some added lack-of-paying-attention in my case.

      2. Will Godfrey Silver badge

        Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

        Not seeing it here either.

    3. CatWithChainsaw

      Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

      Whenever I log into gmail in any browser besides chrome, google nags me to switch. I think google has internal settings that they nag you three times to use chrome before giving up for that browser session.

      1. desht

        Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

        I exclusively use Firefox to read Gmail, and have never once been prompted to switch.

        1. CatWithChainsaw

          Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

          I get nagged regardless of Firefox or Edge, but only 2-3 times each.

      2. Will Godfrey Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Chrome used to do the same thing

        What is gmail? I uses claws mail for... err... email.

  8. Detective Emil

    Pity about SpaceX's Starship

    It came down in the Indian Ocean, instead of say, Redmond or Mountain View.

  9. sarusa Silver badge
    Devil

    As expected

    If you're not using Firefox at this point, you deserve what you get.

    (But do keep a privacy locked version of Chrome around for the occasional dain bramaged site coded to work only with Chrome and Chrome variants like Edge. Sigh).

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: As expected

      Wouldn't Vivaldi be better if you really need a Chromium browser?

      1. Rahbut

        Re: As expected

        I get the problem with Chrome, but what's wrong with Chromium? or Thorium?

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: As expected

          I hadn't come across Thorium so went to take a look.

          Oh, they seem unable to develop a website that doesn't show anything useful with Javascript blocked. It doesn't lend confidence to their ability to develop a browser.

      2. 43300 Silver badge

        Re: As expected

        Or Brave.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: As expected

          Not Brave because it entertains planet-burning blockchain nonsense.

          Not Chromium because it still phones home to Google.

          1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            Re: As expected

            "t entertains planet-burning blockchain nonsense."

            And homophobia:

            https://community.brave.com/t/brave-needs-to-address-brendan-eich/281044

            And Covid denial:

            https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/brave-brendan-eich-covid-19.html

  10. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    We can forgive those who thought this was malware at first glance.

    How is it not?

  11. biddibiddibiddibiddi

    So they now have the operating system running processes that just monitor the applications that you use for the sole purpose of prompting you to use the Microsoft alternative services, altering your settings, AND continuing to monitor whether you try to change the settings back when the application notifies you (as intended) that something external tried to change the settings and scare you into ignoring it? (Or does that second prompt just happen automatically without actually looking at the settings, on the assumption that Chrome would be warning you?)

    I'm okay with their websites prompting to switch, that's old news, and it's THEIR site. Even having the browser itself prompt when you visit the competitor's site is still that one app doing it. But monitoring my installed apps using a process built into the operating system to see if there's an opportunity to push their own is crossing the line.

    1. Vometia has insomnia. Again. Silver badge

      There's a whole bunch of processes that are dedicated to doing stuff like that and other snooping. I have very noisy HDDs on my gaming PC (large and relatively inexpensive because of the amount of gaming mods and crap I download, and they're okay for RAID; but they are bloody noisy) and I can hear them unexpectedly rumbling away on a regular basis. It's nearly always the result of something that came hidden amongst the inevitable bloatware that all IT companies are now guilty of that's decided without asking permission that it's going to rummage through all my shit and phone home with its findings. Some of it is more persistent and difficult to get rid of than others. It's kinda scary/annoying (depending on mood) how much of this stuff goes on, and I'm probably only aware of the more blatant examples.

      "Something must be done", though I'm not going to hold my breath. Big Tech™ still exists in a current-day Wild West and I don't see that changing any time soon.

  12. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    This is confusing for the user as they don’t know where the message came from. Is it Google Chrome? Is it the computer itself? Is it Windows? Is it the web page they’re on? Most people don’t know or care - it’s just another message asking a question they don’t want to answer when they’re trying to do something else. It’s the same as:

    - cookie warning messages. We didn’t ask for them, we haven’t got time to deal with them and they’re making the whole experience worse

    - messages that appear in web sites to give you a coupon code and sign you up, when you’re in the middle of looking for something

    - having to listen to a message on a phone call asking if you want to leave feedback after the call. No, I want the whole process to hurry up

    - buttons on card machines in petrol stations not letting you pay unless you answer yes or no to the ‘donate to charity’ button. No, I’m in a hurry, I don’t want to have to parse whole messages to work out if I have to press one button or another

    These are all obstacles and speed bumps in our lives that aren’t designed to help us at all, they’re designed to block us, frustrate us, annoy us and generally use us.

    To me at least, all the above are the same. It’s just big corporations pissing about not thinking of the customer / user experience.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Cookie warning messages that require you to run a script to get rid of them...

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      These are all obstacles and speed bumps in our lives that aren’t designed to help us at all, they’re designed to block us, frustrate us, annoy us and generally use us. tell us to take out custom elsewhere.

      FTFY

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "tell us to take out custom elsewhere."

        The problem is that they are ALL doing it. If you complain, odds are you'll get no response, but if they do deign to responds, they'll waffle on about how it only take s a few seconds of your time and will help "improve" the service. They never, never will understand that few seconds, minutes, whatever, mounts up when they are all doing it and it pisses off every customer. Almost every interaction with a business these days results in a "feedback survey" by email or phone. And the survey NEVER has a free form reply where you can complain about the waste of time the survey is!

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Almost every interaction with a business these days results in a "feedback survey" by email or phone.

          If it's an SMS phone message it gets the report and block treatment. If I absolutely have to deal (as rarely as possible) with those who are apt to end such guff I allocate them their own email address and set it to bounce as soon as the transaction is complete.

          1. Andros

            isn't quicker to delete?

    3. captain veg Silver badge

      Re: We didn’t ask for them, we haven’t got time to deal with them and...

      It was always thus.

      I remember "upgrading" to an early version of Netscape from a slightly earlier version and suddenly being assaulted by modal message boxes stating "You have received a cookie". Which was annoying, especially since we say "biscuit" in my part of the world.

      They (Netscape) could have done us all a big favour by offering a "fuck off and don't try this crap ever again" option.

      -A.

      1. samzeman

        Re: We didn’t ask for them, we haven’t got time to deal with them and...

        But imagine a world without cookies! Even the google ads bubble might not have become a thing!

        What a sick and twisted world that would be.

  13. navarac Silver badge

    Advertising cess pit

    The whole (hole?) of the Interweb is full of Corporations wallowing in their advertising cesspits. They are all as bad as the next one - truly grasping s**t heads, the lot of them.

  14. navarac Silver badge

    EU Legislation

    Perhaps MSFT are running scared that they are going lose millions of Edge and Bing users when those in the EU uninstall all there nice MSFT Apps? What a shame - NOT.

  15. xyz123 Silver badge

    its not a one-time thing. I've had the popup at least EIGHT times. One of the popups didn't have any way to refuse the change. I had to use task manage to KILL the process to get rid of it.

  16. Blackjack Silver badge

    [you do, you’ll turn off Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome and lose access to Bing AI with GPT-4 and DALL-E 3.]

    That just makes me to turn it off even more.

  17. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    No learning

    They will never learn

    Never

  18. The Central Scrutinizer

    [smug mode] I do so enjoy running Linux. [/smug mode]

  19. Pete Sdev Bronze badge
    Black Helicopters

    Fingers crossed

    Hoping for a fat fine from the EU for this behaviour.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Fingers crossed

      Hoping for a full-scale monopoly investigation that ends with Microsoft being broken up instead of being allowed to get away with making promises whilst keeping their fingers crossed.

      I suppose the downside to that would be Oracle coming along to buy up the pieces.

      1. Paul Herber Silver badge

        Re: Fingers crossed

        and Meta.

  20. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Windows

    Wait until

    windows 14

    Running system process load analysis on win kernel

    MMU : 0.10%

    GFX: 1%

    Network: 0.5%

    User data analysis: 10%

    Serving ads based on above :85%

    Remaining resources for user processes: 4%. Microsoft are pleased to announce that if you buy an Intel I11 15Ghz 24 core CPU, you'll have a extra 1% for your programs. click here to buy.

    1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

      Re: Wait until

      There won't be an i-Series in Intel's lineup by then, but what did you think those large numbers of "efficiency cores" were meant to be doing?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please, Microsoft, don't stop now! Take it all the way!

    It does not help Microsoft's corporate image when this bollocks pops up on corporate clients' desktops. There have been several such escapades while I have been working in such an environment recently - less than a year, and part-time at that. Every instance sets the noise around the water cooler a little higher and the corporate Love-Microsoft thermometer a little lower. Please, Microsoft, we want to see more of this in the CEO's face, they're coming up to their annual review of the IT strategy, and you have this great chance to play Boeing's once-too-often card. Don't waste it!

  22. Wolfclaw

    This is more and more like the old Microsoft anti-competitive monopolist, time for the EU to give the tech titans a good kicking as the USA regulator won't !

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