Bing No Longer Makes People Think They’re Using Google
I’ve seen my fair share of copied designs in more than a decade of journalism, but I’ve never seen anything as egregious as Bing’s recently abandoned attempt to trick people into believing they’re actually using Google.
Since time immemorial, people have been using default system apps to look for better alternatives and switch to them instead. Previously, Internet Explorer was often used to download Firefox or Chrome, but then was forgotten forever. Now the same thing is happening with Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, and the company is clearly not happy with it.
If you’re using the Microsoft Edge browser and haven’t changed its default settings, Bing is your search engine. Earlier this month, when you typed the word “Google” into your browser’s address bar, you saw a page that you may have thought was a Google search, but in fact you were still in Bing. The illusion was complete with a fake Google Doodle, a search bar with Google-style text underneath, results positioned in a way that mimicked Google’s design, and other fake Google user interface elements. This was first noticed by 9to5Google .
The worst part was that the fake page even hid Microsoft’s Bing branding by auto-scrolling it. Typically, the Bing branding and search bar are clearly visible at the top of every search.
A few weeks later (and after the practice gained a lot of attention on this website and others), the farce appears to be over: searching for “Google” in Bing now takes you to the standard Bing results page. But it’s clear that they tried this scheme at all because Microsoft noticed that people were using Bing to search Google and was unhappy about it.
Parisa Tabriz, vice president of Google Chrome, expressed dissatisfaction with the decision by X (formerly Twitter). Her post said: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft’s spoofing of Google’s home page is yet another tactic in its long history of ploys designed to confuse users and limit choice. New year, new low @Microsoft.” If you’re not comfortable with these kinds of tricks, you can easily switch your default browser in Windows 11 .
Editor’s note: We reached out to Microsoft for comment but have not yet received a response.