Microsoft drew attention at the beginning of this month for showing rather misleading Google-style search bar when users searched for the rival engine on Bing. Now, it appears the company is targeting the Chrome browser as well. Spotted by Windows Latest, some users may see a big banner pushing Edge when they search for Chrome while using Microsoft’s browser.
The real dodgy part, however, is the fact that this banner just happens to partially hide the Chrome download link behind a “See more” button.
I wasn’t able to replicate this myself so I can’t comment on whether it’s still up, but experiments like this aren’t always pushed to everyone. As you can see from Windows Latest’s image, however, most of the Chrome link is faded out and looks pretty easy to miss.
With the “fake Google” search bar tactic, you could argue that some people just search for “google” because they see it as a synonym for “search” and they don’t really care about the specific product or company. That argument doesn’t work here. If someone is searching for Chrome while using Microsoft Edge, then they want to switch browsers. It’s outrageous for a search engine to try and hide the link a user has specifically searched for, no matter what the motivation is. Have the tool do its job first, and advertise second.
The banner is also pretty creepy — no one wants their computer to respond to their Internet searches. Self-promotion is the only thing on Microsoft’s mind but for the user, this feels the same as searching for “chocolate shop near me” and Bing responding with “There’s no need for you to eat chocolate.”
The search bar spoof has already been killed, though not before Google jumped at the chance to claim the moral high ground with this X post: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice. New year; new low @Microsoft.”
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice.
New year; new low @Microsoft https://t.co/LKSNNKB7Hy
— Parisa Tabriz (@laparisa) January 6, 2025
I wouldn’t be surprised if this latest experiment disappears soon as well. But whether Microsoft has any other “boundary-pushing” ad ideas up its sleeve is anyone’s guess. Maybe next it will try a redirect trick and take you to Bing when you click on the Google link.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).