This sales pitch was first spotted by VentureBeat. The search results says “Microsoft recommends Microsoft Edge for Windows 10.” A “Learn why” button next to that message takes you to a website showing off Edge’s features. It is basically recommending its Windows 10 users to stick to the Edge browser and not switch to another browser.
It is not surprising to see tech companies promote their own browsers, or preferred partner browsers. For example, Google often recommends users to use Chrome as their default browser while they are running Google searches. Similarly, the Mozilla users are greeted with a message similar to the Edge browser while trying to searching for Mozilla’s Firefox browser. However, the same message was not displayed while searching for “Opera”, which is another non-Microsoft browser. The message displayed by Edge browser also maybe limited to certain countries like the U.S., as searching for Chrome or Firefox in other countries did not yield the message either.
Chris Brand, CEO of Mozilla had already claimed that Microsoft was making it hard for Windows 10 users to choose Mozilla Firefox as the default browser in the new operating system. “Microsoft Edge was designed exclusively for Windows 10 with features and functionality that enhance the browsing experience such as Cortana, Web Note and Quick answers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “These notifications were created to provide people with quick, easy information that can help them get to know these experiences better. That said, with Windows 10 you can easily choose the default browser and search engine of your choice.” Also heard was that Microsoft is now offering extra Bing Rewards credits for users who carry out searches with Bing using Microsoft Edge. ‘Bing’ search engine that competes with Google, and Bing Rewards is a way to earn credit for searching with Bing. It’s rewards program is basically an attempt to stop users from switching to Google searching.
