Microsoft aggressively trying to keep Chrome downloaders using Edge

Abner Li | Feb 21 2023 - 9:41 pm PT

Microsoft sees its browser as an important aspect and entry point for the new Bing. Microsoft Edge on Windows is now showing a rather aggressive ad on the Chrome download page to dissuade people from switching.

After downloading Chrome, Microsoft Edge (Canary) for Windows users today (via Neowin) noticed a “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft” message.

Top comment by Mike Smith

Liked by 6 people

I have Outlook as my email client on my Google phone and always use Chrome as my default browser but now when I get an email that requires clicking a link I get a message flash up giving me the choice of using Microsoft Edge or my default browser. The Microsoft Edge box is always ticked as the first choice and I have to keep changing it back to my default browser to open the link. It's mega annoying as it feels Microsoft are forcing their browser upon me but all it's doing is making me more determined than ever not to use it!!!

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The banner appears underneath the address bar and — critically — looks to be part of google.com/chrome. There’s also a tiny advert in the top-right corner (above the site and browser UI) when the Chrome page initially loads, with many finding this ad injection to be egregious.

This is a big overstep by Microsoft imo

They are injecting ads *into the Google Chrome download page* pushing their own browser 🫠

This should not be ok pic.twitter.com/QNc3i2sKnz
— Chris Frantz (@frantzfries) February 21, 2023

This behavior looks limited to Windows (we couldn’t replicate it on Edge for Mac), and is currently only on Edge’s preview channel. It’s possible that the current backlash will mean Microsoft won’t release it to stable.

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Update: Some people (see comments below) are already encountering this prompt in the stable channel.

For its part, Google also tries to get people to use Chrome, but it’s not as aggressive. If you open Google Search in Safari for Mac, you’ll see a corner pop-up that says “Google recommends using Chrome.” The key diffidence is that this advertisement is occurring on a website Google owns.