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Advertising Chrome Microsoft

Microsoft Is Bombarding Chrome-Using Outlook.com Visitors With Ads For Edge (betanews.com) 83

Posted by BeauHD from the public-service-announcement dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BetaNews: Microsoft is no stranger to hitting its customers with ads for its products and services, and it seems that the company is so keen that people make the switch to the new Chromium-based version of Edge that it is now bombarding Outlook.com users with banner ads. The ads are targeting people who visit the web-based version of Outlook using Google Chrome, and they see Microsoft extolling the speed and performance of its most recent web browser.

As spotted by Windows Latest a series of ads appear at the top of Outlook.com encouraging people to try out Microsoft Edge. In the ads, Microsoft claims that Edge brings "the best of the web," makes "Outlook more accessible," and boosts "speed, performance and compatibility." The good news about the latest batch of ads from Microsoft is that they are not terribly persistent. While there are a number of different banner ads which are displayed in rotation after a refresh or on each new visit to Outlook.com, once they have been dismissed they do not seem to make a reappearance.
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Microsoft Is Bombarding Chrome-Using Outlook.com Visitors With Ads For Edge More

Microsoft Is Bombarding Chrome-Using Outlook.com Visitors With Ads For Edge

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  • oh.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperDre ( 982372 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:02AM (#59999624) Homepage

    The same like Google does when coming to one of their websites. I so many times get a bar in top of the browser of a google owned website if I want to start using Chrome. Go to Youtube and a lot of times you'll get that bar too.
    So don't act like it's Microsoft only who tries to lure you to their browser as Google did it first..

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by _merlin ( 160982 )

      Yeah, I was gonna say turnabout's fair play. Google are the kings of constantly trying to push you to use Chrome. Chrome got to its dominant position thanks to Google's aggressive marketing.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      TBH I'm surprised I don't get pushed to use edge when I Bing for stuff. Google got it's market share by pushing it's browser every time you google for something, in the UK they even had a huge chrome ad push via bill-boards.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )

        Remember when Microsoft was hit with a monopoly lawsuit for having IE preinstalled? I remember.
        Remember when Google was hit with a monopoly lawsuit for using its dominant position to promote his services? And including Chrome preinstalled in every Android device? I don't.

        • Re:oh.. (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:16AM (#59999854)

          The one that EU is currently working on?

          It took EU bureaucracy years to formulate the case and then years in courts and almost a year of fines get MS to decouple IE from Windows. It's going to take at least as much with Google. Give it time, it's coming and precedent is already set.

      • When you Bing for stuff? Did you really just say that? You must work for Microsoft.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rhipf ( 525263 )

        It also helped that Chrome was ninja installed with a lot of other programs.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

          MS too scared to do that no doubt, they could easily silent install it and suggest you try it now on the start menu.

    • I so many times

      Sounds like you clear your cookies after each session.

      • Sounds like you clear your cookies after each session.

        And why not? Let them have to rejigger the data they get from you. It throws off their metrics as to how many "unique" visitors they get.

        It's like people whining they can't read a New York Times article. Clear the cookies from the site and you're good to go. But then, that takes the barest amount of effort so we won't do that.

        • Sounds like you clear your cookies after each session.

          And why not?

          I clear them (except those of the regular sites I visit) when I'm reminded by any particularly patronising notice that I'm being stuffed with them, notices usually starting with "We value your privacy ..." which actually means " Your privacy has a sale value to us, and fuck you ...".

    • Microsoft knows you already have Edge (whether you want it or not) and chose not to use it. Advertising Mac/Linux versions of Edge being an exception.

    • Re:oh.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fph il quozientatore ( 971015 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:50AM (#59999938)
      Ad blockers are becoming even more "essential services", in my view.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Falos ( 2905315 )

      Either all ads are bombardment or none are.

      I'm of the former opinion. Some people insist they must keep their lives free of gluten or rap music, I think being told what to think what to like what to buy, "ignored" or not, is a source of brain decay and something you can often avoid. Services, locations, goods, websites, software, as if your life wasn't already saturated with being treated as a number, a demographic. When grandpa said TV will rot your brain, he meant the miasma of manipulative messages.

      [post

      • Yes, computer ads are annoying. BUT... We ignore out parents. We ignore our clergy. We ignore out experts. We ignore TV ads. What's one more thing?

    • As much as I would like to bash Microsoft. I agree these are just two giants fighting each other.

      The only difference we could argue (because I really want to bash Microsoft) is that Outlook.com is more focused around enterprise email solutions meant for business, while Google and Gmail are often better suited for the average home consumer. The Home user can normally just install whatever software they feel like to block annoying messages. Most enterprise systems, Installing a browser is just opening a c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      I came here to say this. Once I would have had a problem with this. Now I see it as something the uncool do to pimp their product.

    • Adblock is your friend, advertisers are your enemy.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • The same like Google does when coming to one of their websites. I so many times get a bar in top of the browser of a google owned website if I want to start using Chrome.

      I use Firefox, Google and YouTube, and I've never seen a ad for Chrome. Maybe they think you are a soft touch.

  • Only targetting Chrome... (Score:3)

    by mutantSushi ( 950662 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:13AM (#59999646)

    So... They figure Firefox users are a lost cause if they already won't drink Google's Kool-Aid? Or their features just don't support Firefox? Bit of both?

  • Nothing to see here, move along (Score:5, Insightful)

    by orlanz ( 882574 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:37AM (#59999672)

    I guess it's a slow news day. Microsoft should be advertising their browser this way vs all the other crappy ways many do it. We should be kudoing them for their civility and others should follow the example.

    It's an ad space, some ad will be there. Better a civil, properly targeted, simple one over a blaring, content hiding, seizure inducing, useless one.

    Let's encourage MS on this stuff to they continue to do it this way rather than the "We are 2x* faster**; our research says*** so." crap.

  • ... are lost causes anyway?

    If you want to help them, a nice calm room in a mental facility with extensive parks around it, could at least alleviate their state a little bit. But I don't think much else can be done that would not amount to brainwashing as morally unacceptable as that of the perpetrators that did this to them.

    I wonder though, if it is at all a life worth living.

    _ _ _ _
    (Comment license 2.0: If you take any of this too seriously, you hereby agree to pay $5 into the "Triggered" jar. :)

  • Bombarding (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:48AM (#59999696)

    I'm pretty sure the term bombarding implies a continuous and sustained attack rather than showing someone an advert once and not again after it's been dismissed.

    But we need OUTRAGE!

  • Get them migrated to Edge. Make IE mode easier for legacy web pages.

  • I normaly use firefox, with safari my second option (chrome is installed in my machine only for the benefit of my two chromecasts).

    In both instances, whenever I enter to Outlook.com I get that publicity.

    But I guess that's par for the course. As some other posters have indicated, Google does pretty much the same (sugesting you switch to chrome) with firefox and safary when you enter their properties, so, no biggie. I just ignore the ads and keep on chugging.

  • My 9yr old has a Microsoft child account. I have turned off all app restrictions, however he is not allowed to use chrome without asking me and has to ask every 3 hours. There is no off option, no fix, no reply from Microsoft support. Every single other application works. After a few days of this he comes to me and tells me about how Edge is better because of whatever the Edge splash screen says. It's the only browser he can use now and neither of us have a choice in the matter.

    • You should get the kid a Linux box.

    • My 9yr old has a Microsoft child account. I have turned off all app restrictions, however he is not allowed to use chrome without asking me and has to ask every 3 hours. There is no off option, no fix, no reply from Microsoft support. Every single other application works. After a few days of this he comes to me and tells me about how Edge is better because of whatever the Edge splash screen says. It's the only browser he can use now and neither of us have a choice in the matter.

      Of course you do. Remember, this is not forced on you, this is opt-in, and you opt-in by using Windows. You've opted into it, so stop whining about it.

      If you don't want the shitty experience you are currently complaining about, use an alternative, but don't try to pretend that you didn't willingly choose this experience.

  • and substitute my own...
  • win 10 is already sucking, takes too long to install, takes even longer to download and install updates, when was win 10 released? microsoft might as well build/release a win 11, or make a netinstall cd so every install is up to date when the install is finished, sheesh, it was quicker & easier to install lubuntu-20.04 and it runs great too

    • Re:i just wiped windows off a laptop (Score:4, Interesting)

      by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:44AM (#59999918)
      and this was a fresh clean install on a thinkpad, the updates failed to install properly, and they were HUGE updates, microsoft is not doing things right, windows 10 is just a bloated kludge, and just not worth the hassle, if they want to survive they need to do the netinstall cd otherwise the huge DVD that installs a 5 year old operating system that needs as many gigabites of updates as the original OS is just stupid and more trouble than its worth

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by kenh ( 9056 )

        To be clear, you took an older, unused win 10 laptop, attempted to apply 5 years worth of updates, had a problem with an update and erased the OS?

        That the restore DVD is as old as the laptop is not surprising.

        You can download a tool from Microsoft to create installation media for the latest version of Windows 10 from Microsoft, I leave it to you to figure out how to search for it on the web.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kenh ( 9056 )

        Who does it right? Ubuntu has 2x major releases a year, I can't imagine the hoops I'd have to jump thru to update 2015 Ubuntu to 2020 Ubuntu thru the software upgrade tool they supply. I have a 19.04 Ubuntu laptop that needed a release upgrade (no more updates) that required a 1 gig download to bring it to 19.10, I haven't tried 19.10 to 20.04 (current)...

      • microsoft is not doing things right

        Actually you're not doing things right. Microsoft has a media creation tool on its sit that downloads a current and up to date image for installation. Did you get like an original Windows 10 copy from 2016 and install it from DVD or some shit like that? Requiring updates and also saying that they failed certainly points towards you doing something very strange.

        otherwise the huge DVD that installs a 5 year old operating system

        Yeah. Next time download Windows from www.microsoft.com (the oldest version you can currently download is 2 months old), not www.freewindows10honest.

        • the people replying that think i was using an old install media, nope, it was win10 && the 1903 build downloaded just a little more than a month ago

    • takes even longer to download and install updates

      I'm confused. Why and how do you even see the update process? Both of these are done in the background and now even for major feature updates a reboot at the end of the update took less time than it takes to download an Ubuntu ISO. Were you running a Windows version from 3 years ago or something?

      As for the fresh install it *is* a net update and doesn't download anything after a fresh install unless you chose to make the media or hit the clean install button a year before you intended to use it.

      Man you must

  • Microsoft advertises Microsoft browser to users of competing browser via ads on Microsoft site! News at 11...

  • My Browser reports itself as "FuckYou/2.0". Google wants me to upgrade to the current version because this browser will soon be no longer supported by Google. I wonder what Microsoft says about it? (Nothing other than Google & Microsoft seems to care).

  • You mean there are people who use Chrome that don't activate the ad blocker?

  • ....... for downloading other browsers.

  • Bombard? (Score:2)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    is now bombarding Outlook.com users with banner ads.

    The good news about the latest batch of ads from Microsoft is that they are not terribly persistent.

    once they have been dismissed they do not seem to make a reappearance.

    You and I must have different definitions for the word "bombarding"...

    Encouraging users of their free email service to try their free browser when they log in to the website with a particular browser with a one-time per-visit banner ad is now a problem?

    Grow up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      is now bombarding Outlook.com users with banner ads.

      The good news about the latest batch of ads from Microsoft is that they are not terribly persistent.

      once they have been dismissed they do not seem to make a reappearance.

      You and I must have different definitions for the word "bombarding"...

      Encouraging users of their free email service to try their free browser when they log in to the website with a particular browser with a one-time per-visit banner ad is now a problem?

      Grow up.

      Sorry, borked the html

    • That's a lot of quoting. Anything to say for yourself?
  • Well, it's an ad on a website they own so that's fair game to me. As long as they don't show the ad in Windows itself (which they've already done sometimes for some of their products) that ok by me
  • So? YouTube and Gmail bombard me with ads to switch to Chrome. I fail to see why this is at issue.

  • Microsoft: Hey you! Stop using Google Chrome and switch to our version of Chrome!
    Me: Wait, what?

  • >"Microsoft Is Bombarding Chrome-Using Outlook.com Visitors With Ads For Edge "

    No, it is bombarding *ALL* non-Edge users with an Ad for Edge. I know, because it did it to me and I use Firefox exclusively. It is the exact same thing Google did to all non-Chrome users on their search page, for well over a YEAR, trying to push them to Chrome.

    And no, I don't like it at all. There are numerous, very good reasons I use Firefox and recommend it to others. I don't appreciate such banners/ads/"suggestions."

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