[HN Gopher] Every trick Microsoft pulled to make you browse Edge...
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Every trick Microsoft pulled to make you browse Edge instead of
Chrome
Author : pseudolus
Score : 61 points
Date : 2023-10-27 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
| wintorez wrote:
| Can this be considered a dark pattern?
| Hamuko wrote:
| _" Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying
| another browser?"_
|
| How about "My current one is monitoring what sites I'm browsing
| and asking me why I was using them"?
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| And Google isn't monitoring your behavior when you use Chrome?
| JohnFen wrote:
| Why do you assume that the commenter was installing Chrome?
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| I'm not assuming anything about poster just that Chrome is
| the largest market share browser and is also spying on it's
| users.
| baq wrote:
| I'd use Firefox on the work issued Mac if 1) I would have to
| login to everything as often as in chrome instead of daily and
| 2) if scrolling wasn't so horribly useless (yes I tweaked
| about:config). I'm a very happy Firefox user on home windows
| pc.
| JohnFen wrote:
| Or "No, it's none of your damned business".
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Wish we also covered the tricks that Google used to trick users
| into adopting Chrome, like paying every freeware vendor since
| 2009 to install Chrome automatically on your system if you forgot
| to untick the "Install Chrome" box, similar to any other spyware
| of the era like the Ask Jeeves or Yahoo! toolbars.
|
| I remember back then, when Chrome just came out, asking non-tech
| people how they got it and they always answered "I dunno, it just
| showed up".
| orev wrote:
| At the time, Chrome was the scrappy new browser coming from the
| company that vowed to "don't be evil", challenging the well-
| entrenched and stagnant IE11. Most tech people started using
| Chrome because of this, and had no problem earning a few bucks
| promoting it.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> Most tech people started using Chrome because of this, and
| had no problem earning a few bucks promoting it._
|
| That's how EEE works.
| xattt wrote:
| Who could forget the sticker campaign?
| xattt wrote:
| I was always impressed and terrified that a single click from
| IE could start the Chrome installer without any further user
| interaction.
| jwells89 wrote:
| It's unfortunate that MS took Edge down this path. Early on it
| was among the best of Chrome-cousins and I'd just leave it as the
| default browser on new Windows installs, but with all they've
| done to it's become a solid _downgrade_ and I'm back to
| installing alternatives.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I've said this about Windows and I'm sure it applies to Edge.
| Some marketing person somewhere at Microsoft is looking at the
| some metric that their OS pulls in and asking the managers of
| the engineers to get these numbers up. "We must have everyone
| using Edge. We must have everyone getting Office."
|
| Windows isn't an Operating System anymore, its an advertising
| platform for 1 client, and it's awful when you consider that
| you're buying an ad / spyware infested OS.
|
| The whole, if you're not paying for it, you're the product
| isn't the case anymore. You're the product no matter what you
| do.
|
| Linux has none of this shenanigans, and even when it does it
| takes two seconds to turn off, or you know, we call it Android.
|
| Edit: Cleaned it up a smidgen and added one sentence.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Unfortunately this also seems to affect all their GUI
| offerings, I wouldn't be surprised if the great GUI civil war
| going on Redmond isn't a side effect from some KPIs fighting
| for resource allocation.
| donmcronald wrote:
| When Edge was basically Google free Chromium, it was really good.
| Now Microsoft's product people have turned it into bloatware. I
| think they had an opportunity to gain significant market share
| and the only thing they had to do was... nothing.
|
| Instead, they've juiced the short term metrics by using every
| sleazy trick in the book and I'm back to installing Chrome or
| Firefox as the first step after every Windows install.
| cwales95 wrote:
| MS just comes off desperate with their tricks trying to con users
| into using Edge. Then again, Chrome is no better with their
| attempts to dominate the web and force their own standards on
| other browsers to make ads harder to dodge.
|
| Aside from Firefox, there's really not many other browsers I
| trust.
| xattt wrote:
| It's not desperate, it's nearly abusive. Can you imagine what
| this relationship would like between two people?
| JohnFen wrote:
| Microsoft has been abusive for longer than many people
| reading this have been alive.
| Terretta wrote:
| Meanwhile we clamor to the EU to force Apple to let Chrome
| replace Safari on their otherwise vertically integrated iPhone.
| pjmlp wrote:
| They are the only castle left standing, for all practical
| purposes Firefox no longer matters, given its market share
| and Mozzilla's agenda making the world a better place or
| whatever they are doing now.
| surgical_fire wrote:
| The irony is that Mozilla could make the world an
| objectively better place by being laser-focused in turning
| Firefox into the best browser possible.
|
| Taking away Chrome's marketshare and making a dent in
| Google's absolute power in the web should be their only
| goal, instead of whatever they diversified into.
| dang wrote:
| Related. Others?
|
| _Microsoft now thirstily injects a poll when you download Google
| Chrome_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38014168 - Oct
| 2023 (139 comments)
|
| _Microsoft now demands to know why you won 't use Edge when you
| download Chrome_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38008100
| - Oct 2023 (134 comments)
|
| _Microsoft has not stopped forcing Edge on Windows 11 users_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37461449 - Sept 2023 (449
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people
| to ditch Chrome_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37321002
| - Aug 2023 (365 comments)
|
| _Microsoft is trying too hard with Edge_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36940597 - July 2023 (67
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft broke a Chrome feature to promote Edge_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35787707 - May 2023 (315
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft hijacks Google 's Chrome download page to beg you not
| to ditch Edge_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34911233 -
| Feb 2023 (21 comments)
|
| _Microsoft is now injecting full-size ads on Chrome website_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34886732 - Feb 2023 (364
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft Edge will now warn users about the dangers of
| downloading Chrome_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29448175 - Dec 2021 (5
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft Edge will now warn users about the dangers of
| downloading Chrome_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29421464 - Dec 2021 (4
| comments)
|
| _Microsoft's new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading
| Chrome_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29415031 - Dec
| 2021 (422 comments)
| OldGuyInTheClub wrote:
| One more: My employer (gigantic corporation) mandates Microsoft.
| Edge is the default browser. We cannot change it. The browser
| option is grayed out, we are not allowed extensions, nor do we
| have access to the Registry.
|
| Firefox is still allowed for the moment. We have to manually copy
| and paste links into it from emails, etc.
| distract8901 wrote:
| Slightly OT, but what the hell is going on with these massive
| persistent popups on every website imploring me to sign in with
| my google account lately? After the first dozen I just added a
| uBlock filter for it, but it's ridiculous now.
| windowsrookie wrote:
| Chrome-based Edge really was a good browser. But they have loaded
| it up with so much junk now. You have to disable so many things
| to get it to a usable state.
|
| Although, I did discover it is more efficient on low-end hardware
| than other browsers. I recently had to make an emergency laptop
| purchase on vacation. I picked up a cheap laptop with a Celeron
| CPU and 4GB Ram. Firefox was incredibly slow and almost unusable.
| I switched to Edge and it performed significantly better and used
| less RAM. I really was amazed at how much better it performed.
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(page generated 2023-10-27 23:02 UTC)