Recently, users of Windows 10/11 who use Google Chrome have reported seeing pop-up ads promoting Bing on the right side of their browsers. While some initially thought it was malware, it was actually part of a new Microsoft campaign. Now the company is rolling out it to more languages and regions.
Microsoft asks through a pop-up to try Bing as their default search engine and advertises free access to GPT-4 to promote its search engine to users. Microsoft also emphasizes that once selected, you can return to the previous search engine if the user is not satisfied with Bing.
Moreover, Microsoft shows this pop-up window in several languages, for example, in Spanish, depending on the system settings. The company previously confirmed that each new user will see such a warning once.
It is impossible to disable the appearance of a new notification in the system settings, since Microsoft believes that it will appear once, but randomly.
It is noteworthy that the notifications have buttons to “dismiss” or “do not change settings,” but they don't look as prominent as the blue buttons that entice the user to activate more Microsoft services on their PC.
Users first spotted such promotional pop-up in March. They find the new ads intrusive, and accuse Microsoft for using dark patterns to promote their services.
Image and credits: Windows Latest
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