Microsoft is once again making efforts to promote its own browser, Edge, in competition with Google Chrome. When users attempt to download Google Chrome through Microsoft Edge, they are now presented with a poll to understand their reasons for switching to another browser.
Microsoft has been actively encouraging users to make Edge their default browser through various ads, banners, and pop-ups. In the event that users still choose to proceed with downloading Chrome, they may be prompted to answer a poll, explaining why they prefer an alternative browser.
During the attempt to download Chrome via Microsoft Edge, users may encounter a sidebar poll that queries their motivations for seeking another browser. The questionnaire provides multiple options for respondents, such as difficulties in searching Google, accessing Google documents, lack of access to favorites or passwords, encountering excessive ads and pop-ups, disliking the news feed, experiencing slow performance, incompatibility with Microsoft Edge for certain websites, and the ability to specify their own reasons.
This move follows Microsoft’s previous display of ads to dissuade users from downloading Chrome or other browsers. In Edge Canary, users may encounter two ads that use critical language to highlight perceived issues with Chrome. Furthermore, Edge enforces Bing and cannot be easily removed, and Microsoft has been placing a banner at the top of Bing search results for Chrome users, emphasizing the common open-source technology shared by Edge and Chrome.
Apart from its efforts to steer users away from Chrome, Microsoft has also attempted to discourage users from trying Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, by displaying advertisements for Bing alongside the Google Bar URL in the search bar of a developer version of Edge.
