Bing pop-up advertisements have been enforced by Microsoft in Chrome on Windows 10 and Windows 11. The advertisement on Friday, as reported by Windows Latest and The Verge, urges Chrome users to utilize Bing search instead of Google (in big letters).
“Use GPT-4 to chat for free on Chrome! The advertisement says, “Get hundreds of daily chat turns with Bing Al.” The pop-up will install the “Bing Search” Chrome extension and set Microsoft’s search engine as the default if you select “Yes.”
A Chrome pop-up that asks you to confirm that you want to change the browser’s default search engine will display if you click “Yes” on the advertisement to switch to Bing. The pop-up window inquires, “Did you mean to change your search provider?” According to Chrome’s warning, “the ‘Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome’ extension changed the search to use bing.com.”
Microsoft is once again asking Chrome users to try Bing through unblockable pop-ups https://t.co/g1j0YVPlvo pic.twitter.com/a6gWxit6Nu
— Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu) March 16, 2024
Recent News:Â Explore the Future of Chat: Discords Embedded App SDK
Another Windows notification appears immediately below that alert, presumably anticipating the Chrome pop-up. It reads, “Wait — don’t change it back! Should you do so, Bing Al with GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 will no longer be accessible, and Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome will be disabled. Choose to Maintain to continue using Microsoft Bing.
Users are essentially trapped in a pop-up battle where one firm tries to force you to use its AI assistant/search engine, while another tries to force you to stick with its default—which is probably what you wanted when you installed Chrome in the first place. As people attempt to explore the web, Big Tech’s battles for supremacy in AI and search are becoming annoying virtual shouting matches in front of their eyes.
Also, Check:Â OpenAI launches Read Aloud feature for ChatGPT
It doesn’t seem like there is a simple way to stop the advertisement from showing.
In remarks to Windows Latest and The Verge, Microsoft allegedly attested to the legitimacy of the pop-up while regrettably portraying the action as a chance for consumers.
A corporate spokesman wrote, “This is a one-time notification giving people the choice to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome.” “Those who choose to use Bing as their Chrome default search engine also receive more chat turns in Copilot and chat history when logged in with their Microsoft account.”
It further stated, “We value providing our customers with choice, so there is an option to dismiss the notification,” as a reminder of how accommodating its obtrusive ads are supposed to be to user freedom. Microsoft was contacted by Engadget via email to obtain independent confirmation, but they did not reply right away. Should we receive a response, we will update this article.
The advertisement, according to Windows Latest, is the result of a “server-side update” and is not a component of a Windows update. Rather, the outlet conjectured that it’s connected to BingChatInstaller or BingChatInstaller.EXE added two processes, EXE, to “some Windows systems” on March 13.
