Republished on January 26th with Microsoft’s new security and update “nightmares” for Windows users, just as the latest AI updates land badly.
The fun and games between Microsoft and Google continues, and for its latest trick, the Windows-maker just made Google disappear. “New tactic just dropped,” complained one Google exec. “How low can they go!?”
This appears to be the follow-up to Microsoft changing the look and feel of its Bing search results to mimic Google. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Chrome’s boss posted when that was outed. “But Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice.”
That tactic was reversed, but now we have this new one. “Recently, we saw Microsoft tricking searchers into thinking they were searching in Google and not on Bing,” SEO Roundtable reported, when the latest ruse was first spotted. “Now, Bing is hiding the Google search results and placing when you search Bing for the term Google. Plus, Bing is showing a ‘Promoted by Microsoft’ search box.”
In essence, if you search for Google through Bing in your browser, you’ll see a “promoted by Microsoft” dropdown search box negating the need to click through to Google after all. “Bing is also testing a version with that Google looking logo again but not hiding the Google search listings below them.” I have approached Microsoft for any comment on this latest update and the response.
These updates might be wryly amusing, but the question remains whether they’re actually effective. Google dominates search and no-one has yet to make much of a dent. The real threat will come from AI changing the nature of search itself, not adjusting results appearances in a browser.
This isn’t the only trick doing the rounds at the moment. “Microsoft doesn’t want Google to dominate the search market and browser war,” Windows Latest reports, after spotting “Microsoft rolling out a server-side update that makes it slightly tricky to find the Chrome download link.. Microsoft shows a giant search bar when you search for Google Chrome on Bing.”
For those watching from afar, Google and Microsoft taking swipes at one another even as they both dominate their respective domains will make for some interesting headlines. It is still only January, but it’s already clear that there’s a settling-down period underway across big tech, as the reality of a world driven by AI with these giants in the driving seat hits home.
Meanwhile, Bing’s invisibility cloak isn’t the only Microsoft update decision making headlines. We also have its new, controversial move to keep users logged into their accounts rather than signing in each time. This is a potential “security nightmare” when it comes to inadvertently leaving accounts exposed on shared or (worse) public computers without realizing. Users need to remember to use private browsing to ensure no risks — what could go wrong?
“The web browser sign-in experience is changing when you sign in to any product or service using your Microsoft account,” the company has confirmed. “Starting February 2025, you will stay signed in automatically unless you sign out or use private browsing… If you sign in on your own computer, your browser will remember your sign-in information, but if you sign in on a computer, phone or tablet that doesn’t belong to you, or is accessed by other people, you should follow the steps below to use a private browsing window instead. Private browsing ensures that others won’t be able to: Access your Microsoft account, OneDrive or Outlook.com mailbox; See your search and browsing history.” Make sure you don’t forget.
While Google and Microsoft go head-to-head over Chrome versus Edge and Google Search versus Bing, the much bigger spat is over AI. Google has now taken Gemini to its next level, causing consternation across some users at the difficulties in disabling the features on platforms such as Gmail.
And now Microsoft is coming under even more fire for a “confusing mess” with its own most recent AI expansion — the Copilot rebrand of Office. “Microsoft is known for making poor rebranding decisions, and its recent move is no exception, Windows Latest says. Microsoft has rebranded ‘Microsoft 365 Office’ as ‘Microsoft 365 Copilot,’ retiring the household name of the most popular productivity suite, Microsoft Office. With this rebranding, Microsoft integrated Copilot chat into the productivity suite along with making minor tweakings to the UI. But this rebranding effort has drawn more criticism than praise for various reasons.”
The irony is that as the two companies bash it out on various flavors of device with stunts such as masking the Chrome download button or hiding Google Search, all that is almost certain to be overtaken by AI, which still promises to revolutionize web and search — albeit nobody knows exactly how or exactly when.
Microsoft is targeting Google where it dominates and Google is doing the same. Meanwhile, both are stitching their AI offerings through their most popular platforms to a captive audience, running the risk that we see that same level of dominance all over again. The stakes are sky high.
And while both companies are under fire at the same time for their latest updates, we’re firmly in the experimentation phase and so it will be soon forgotten. The AI search prize is driving some of this jostling as the potential for a new baselining comes into view for the first time in a decade. While Microsoft dominates desktop software and productivity, Google has an equally unassailable lead in browsing and search. But that could change — to an extent. Maybe…
