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"With the added trust of Microsoft"
raindog308
Administrator, Veteran
Seriously?
This is a big overstep by Microsoft imo
— Chris Frantz (@frantzfries) February 21, 2023
They are injecting ads *into the Google Chrome download page* pushing their own browser 🫠
This should not be ok pic.twitter.com/QNc3i2sKnz
Thanked by 1Ympker
Comments
To be honest, I'm surprised you discovered it now.
They're doing it since forever... I remember I was using Win7 with IE to download Mozilla Firefox and got the same (non-invasive tbh) ad.
This has been a thing.
For a long time.
In other news... water is wet.
I think this is different. Were they actually modifying Google.com pages in the past?
If you go to Google.com in Firefox or whatever, you'll see an ad from Google on their own pages suggesting chrome.
But when I visit Firefox in Chrome, Chrome doesn't change firefox.com to say "you don't want to download that".
Nice dp
There has been varying levels of this kind of game playing for a while historically. Granted not giving citation is a potential problem, but I do believe others have done similar things. This just happens to be the most "visible" one.
I mean for 2004 through 2014 Mozilla's primary funder was Google through a Default Search agreement.
It makes some air come out of my nose when I think of how it's basically Microsoft Edge's last "Please use me! I still have value!" before I junk it and replace it.
Well, it has no real impact for google, because they use the same sources on both browsers. Its technically an integrated copycat for windows.
It impacts Google because they want to keep search on their platform. Edge defaults to Bing. Search is where Google makes $$$. Browser is simply a medium to facilitate that.
Added trust. lol. Instead of omnibar (autocomplete) keylogging to google servers, it will keylog to bing servers.
To think that back in the day Microsoft was considered "the good guy"... yikes.
Technically they aren't injecting ads. The ad is not a part of the web page or the dom. Note that the scroll bar starts below it. The ad is more a part of the omni bar than the web page.
Recently had to reinstall Windows and the number of times I had to click "no I don't want to use Edge" (or similar) is insane. As far as I remember there was a popup on Chrome download page, this is something new.
It was also a pop'up on teh right upper corner for me, attempting to hide the downloads button.
I don't remember those days.
Early early on (Altair 8080 days) maybe...but Bill was pissing people off as early as 1976.
Actually I guess Microsoft was rather benignly viewed in the MS-DOS days (1980s). It's when their apps started killing off competitors and people looked at "they own the desktop, own the apps, own the LAN, are moving into datacenters" that things darkened. 1990s.
Even though Edge has come a long way and is my primary browser, I think this is very unacceptable and may push some people even further away. I wonder if they've heard of the Streisand effect.
Why would anyone want to download Chrome? But then, if you do use Windows you are already lost so you might install Chrome as well...
Its like "why need an extra tool, if edge does the same?"
Would either stopping use windows and switch to linux.
I had to see the ads etc. for myself. I tested the Chrome download link from within the Edge browser. I got there through searches using Bing and again from Google's main page (with the search field). I got the same results from both searches. The popup appeared, but only on the Chrome download page, not other related pages.
What happened to all the FTC consent decrees that Microsoft signed related to Netscape, etc.?
Unlike Netscape, Google is not the underdog in this fight.
The loophole might be they are just providing a choice to the user and not automatically installing it or preventing you from downloading Chrome. They are just "educating" users that Edge ain't the old IE that made people develop muscle memory to install Chrome immediately upon Windows install.
At this point, MS is the lesser of the 2 evils IMO.
proof?
Microsoft Edge: We removed Google's Spyware Features and replaced them with ours!
Microsoft are only slightly less outwardly evil than they were in the 90s.
I always get this when I'm searching for "chrome download" on IE
Holy shit. Google that, there's interesting arguments. For shits and giggles, bring this up at dinner and argue the counterpoints (e.g. "wet" is a sensation/perception and not wet unless touched, and therefore your finger experiences wetness, not the water. And then people say water touches water so it's always wet on a molecular level but not as a single body...).
I don't know what's the big deal. It has been doing that for ever.
That may be true, but I did not know about this latest action by Microsoft until this thread started.
I have not installed the Chrome browser on anything for a long time. I know that I cannot avoid Google, but I do not actively seek out or use their products. It is a personal choice, and I do not expect others to do the same.
This behavior by Microsoft reminds me of the Internet Explorer vs. Netscape days, when Microsoft made Internet Explorer the default browser on Windows and made it very difficult for users to remove or replace it with Netscape or other browsers. The government got involved as an anti-trust action. Clearly that settlement or consent decree did not impact Microsoft's ability to do what we have seen here, or perhaps there was a time limit on the agreement.
Regardless, the new pop-up reminds me of those old days.
When they were sued, Microsoft claimed it was "impossible" to remove the browser as default due to deep technical integrations, etc. Their initial position was that you could install another browser but keeping IE as the system default was a technical necessity.