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Microsoft Businesses Technology

Microsoft Eyes 'Super App' To Break Apple and Google's Hold on Mobile Search (theinformation.com) 69

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Microsoft recently considered building a "super app" that could combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app, in what would be an ambitious move by the software giant to expand further into consumer services, The Information reported Tuesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the discussions. From the report: Microsoft executives wanted the app to boost the company's multibillion-dollar advertising business and Bing search, as well as draw more users to Teams messaging and other mobile services. Unlike Apple and Google, Microsoft doesn't operate a mobile app store for smartphone users. By creating an all-in-one app that people don't need to leave to access its other offerings, Microsoft hoped to emulate a mobile strategy that has worked for Tencent. The Chinese firm's WeChat app, which combines messaging with shopping, online games, news and a variety of services including grocery ordering, is a source of inspiration for top Microsoft executives, the people said. While it isn't clear whether Microsoft will ultimately launch such an app, the people with knowledge of the discussions said CEO Satya Nadella has laid the groundwork by pushing the Bing search engine to work better with other Microsoft mobile products. For instance, he has directed Bing to integrate with Microsoft's Teams messaging and Outlook email apps, making it easier for customers to share search results in messages.
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Microsoft Eyes 'Super App' To Break Apple and Google's Hold on Mobile Search More

Microsoft Eyes 'Super App' To Break Apple and Google's Hold on Mobile Search

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  • Killer description (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @11:35AM (#63107556) Homepage Journal

    a "super app" that could combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app

    From just a few words, you can tell the goal is to make an app that nobody will ever want to use.

    • The question really is "Can I download Chrome using it..."

      • Bing sucks, so now they are going wrap Bing, Edge, Expedia, probably xbox live and lord knows what else into some giant app? It sounds like they are trying to re-invent aol in some ghastly modern incarnation. Leave it to M$.

        • It's sorta the IT equivalent of someone saying "no-one likes brussels sprouts, celery, liver, tofu, or spam, let's put them all together into a super stew!".
    • Sounds like a browser that has an opinion on what you should care about. No thanks.
      • Yeah..I was reading this and thinking to myself...

        "Is this something that anyone is really actually clamoring for?"

        I know there's the old saying to the effect of "if you nail two things together than have never been nailed before, some schmuck will buy it"....

        But really...who wants or would actually use this?

        -with apologies to the great George Carlin.

    • Microsoft always has a potential monopoly brewing don't they...

    • Re: Killer description (Score:5, Insightful)

      by shm ( 235766 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @12:30PM (#63107710)

      WeChat. They want to copy WeChat.

      • Hopefully without the government observation and censorship. They'll just privatize that portion of it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        Apparently that's what Musk wants to do with Twitter too. The problem (well, there are lots of problems) is that WeChat, by virtue of Chinese censorship of all the competition, has a monopoly in China. Nobody would use an intrusive clone of that controlled by Microsoft. Google's already intrusive enough. And, of course, facebook is even worse. But Google actually provides something unique and useful (i.e. search that mostly works). I guess the also want to clone Amazon while they're at it, but again,

    • From just a few words, you can tell the goal is to make an app that nobody will ever want to use.

      Nobody will ever want to use, but will use it because they are forced to. Want to pay with your phone for parking in this city? Use the app. Want to reserve a seat for that movie? Use the app. Want to see the menu in this restaurant? Use the app.

    • "Bing isn't done, until Siri won't run."

    • You can deduce that just from the word "Microsoft".

    • It sounds like what they are looking to make is a web browser.

    • I was sure they were talking about a browser.

    • a "super app" that could combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app

      From just a few words, you can tell the goal is to make an app that nobody will ever want to use.

      But... who wouldn't want all their search, news reading, shopping and messaging data all in one, convenient place? /sarcasm

  • Like who? The only people that use Bing are idiots.
    Then again, I don't see the point of a search app when the web browser is right next to it and opens in it anyways.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by slaker ( 53818 )

      I've seen many, many users on both desktop and mobile devices who can only interact with the web if they're presented with a search bar. Even the concept of a web address eludes many people, including GenX types who have experienced the full maturation of the Internet from start to present day.

      I'd guess that 90% of Windows users aren't aware that they can search the web from the Windows key on their keyboard. So far as I can tell, most Mac users aren't aware of Spotlight, either.

      Many Android devices have a

      • And most people do not know that Chrome, Edge, Safari and Konqueror are all the same either.

      • I know you can search from the Windows key, but it's a stupid idea. Microsoft then controls how the search is done, they're going to use their search engine, do their snooping ans spying, to enable them to do their own monetization. It's also ridiculous when you think you're searching for a local file and instead get web based resuls instead.

        The more Microsoft tries to be helpful then less helpful they become.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by slaker ( 53818 )

          There's an addon you can install on MS Edge called Chrometana which forces all Windows Searches to happen through the search engine of your choosing and it's not difficult to turn off Microsoft telemetry on Windows.

          I think the overall Windows Search product probably worked best under Windows 8.1, but it's also possible to replace it entirely with a third party tool like Everything.

    • I use Bing every day. Admittedly only because Microsoft pays me (and everyone else) to do so, and I only search random things for a few minutes once a day until I've got all my points and then I switch to Google. But hey, I help them make the use stats look good on the next presentation slide.

      If they pay enough, I'll install their app too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by keltor ( 99721 ) *
      Supposedly people use it to search for porn (this is per Reddit ... not actually sure of the truth of this). The only search engines I see referrals to on any of our sites: Baidu, Shenma, Sougo (basically QQ and WeChat searches), Google, Yandex, Yahoo!Japan, and Naver. Bing, normal Yahoo!, Petal, DuckDuckGo, and all the others are only a few single hits per month - effectively meaningless.

    • Expect Microsoft to make deals with various service providers/stores and make their app the only way to use them from your phone.

    • Are DuckDuckGo users idiots?

  • It's kinda rolleyes that Microsoft doesn't acknowledge that Musk's plan for Twitter is to do just that (X Everything App).

    However, let's fast-forward to a future where Musk succeeds - Kanye just lost access to his banking, can't start his car, can't talk to his Dad - because he likes logos that Musk has emotional control problems with.

    So, maybe Microsoft really does have a market. Their LinkedIn platform has been extremely political, though - kicking off people who buck the GIN.

    That leads to a strong advan

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      Their LinkedIn platform has been extremely political, though - kicking off people who buck the GIN.

      What does "GIN" mean in this context?

    • Yes, MS will have to contend with Musk/Twitter, who plan the same thing (that is, cloning WeChat - turnabout is fair play).

      But this is an excellent time to try to steal Google's dominance of search - GPT-3.5 and it's peers can do 95% of what Google can, faster and more completely. And, of course, far more than that.

      MS has Bing as a fallback for the few cases where GPT can't cope - a big advantage.

      OTOH, Twitter has Musk's experience at PayPal (the "everything" app needs to also do banking and payments), Twit

  • I remember MSN Explorer being a raving success and domentaing the 00s as the dominant browser with all the integrated services like news and messenger and shopping. But then I again I am from alternative dimension where that actually happened....

    • Indeed. Every single attempt by MS to build the killer web portal has been a failure to one extent or another. This just looks like the last iteration of MSN Explorer; an attempt to drag everything you do through a single portal/interface. At least 20 years ago Microsoft dominated the browser market, but even then it couldn't make that turd float, but now on iOS and Android devices, why in the hell would anyone even install this? Are they going to pay manufacturers to make this some sort of default on Andro

      • Sounds just like A O Hell and Compuserf.
      • They should just fork Android and offer a alternative to Google and Apple services, like they did with Chromium. They can use their partnership with Amazon to push an alternative apps store and replace Google logins with Microsoft, fully integrate their services like Google has. Then we would have a Android device power by "Microsoft 365" which would be the business focused phone and offer a true alternative to Google... Especially since Apple devices are shunned by a quiet group of the population that phil

  • They will prioritise marketing while simultanously grabbing and analysing everything else you do in the app, including your private messages. E-commerce wet dream.

    • They will prioritise marketing while simultanously grabbing and analysing everything else you do in the app, including your private messages. E-commerce wet dream.

      I thought all of this was what Windows 11 was aiming towards....?

  • TMI (Score:2)

    by fermion ( 181285 )
    I see a lot of aggregate apps available. I see few are widely used

    This would be a boon for advertising. MS would have freedom to list promoted product, stories, conspiracy theories, corporate brainwashing.

    If MS had a phone I could see them giving it away in exchange for making such an App the primary interface. I suspect that it would be difficult to partner with firms like Oppo as they are already dedicated to provide surveillance services to their government.

  • The problem with integrating those apps is that they're all lousy apps to begin with. In what universe is someone going to want to integrate Outlook with Bing?

    • Isn't this why Giant Corp. wants to buy the newer, less profitable, yet more flexible and innovative Tiny Corp.? Not only to remain relevant, (refer to MySpace), but also to remain dominant in the field?

  • I see what Microsoft is after here, but WeChat seems like it caught on because it focused on the chat angle first and foremost, and then added all those other things as convenient "While you're here? Tap this button to do your grocery ordering!" extras.

    Historically, there seem to only be a few IM type apps that really catch on and gain widespread use at one time. I remember when ICQ was practically the standard, for example. For casual text and video chat, currently? I think most people are using Facebook M

    • WeChat caught on because it's controlled by the fascist Chinese government, who also blocked virtually every other messaging/payment app.

      It didn't catch on because people actually wanted it, or anything like it. The entire concept is actually really stupid, you have to open an app so you can open an app within an app to actually do anything. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole app concept.

      I can't imagine it actually catching on anywhere there isn't government coercion forcing its use.

      • WeChat caught on because it's controlled by the fascist Chinese government, who also blocked virtually every other messaging/payment app.
        They're communists, and the Chinese Communist Party probably wants nothing to do with ancient Roman symbols [wiktionary.org] of power. But carry on your brave quest to hide the true horrors communism, and blame all the bad stuff on fascists.

        • They're not even remotely communists, no matter what they call themselves.

          China is an authoritarian crony capitalist country that has a strong racist component so severe that they're putting some ethnic minorities in concentration camps.

          They have virtually no social safety net, and very little public healthcare.

          They have billionaires and people in abject poverty, wealth inequality is in many ways worse than the US.

          That's fascism, not communism.

          China is no more communist than the Nationalsozialistische Deut

      • I can't imagine it actually catching on anywhere there isn't government coercion forcing its use.

        I actually can imagine it catching with some corporate/oligopoly coercion.

  • Generally, most people hate Windows 11, and so why push the turd deeper under the urine?
  • I can see how MS thinks there might be benefit there - for THEM. Really tired of being dragged along for the ride to support ever increasingly abusive business models.

  • Really wanted to use Outlook for iOS for my unique Outlook email id. The incessant ads for Edge drove me crazy.

    Thanks but no thanks.

  • The last one laid the foundations to bring us Clippy, what will this version bring to the table?

  • Without the 'o'.

  • Oh yes, from the dot-com era...a portal. Maybe this time it might actually be popular and not a pipe dream. ?? The best inventing is re-inventing...

    JoshK.

  • A single point of failure. Who doesn't like that?

  • If they distill into this super app all the great code they have produced for Windows' amazing desktop search... ... no-one will use the app either cos it will be more MS shit.
  • Seems like they spelled stupid app wrong.
  • Isn't this just a re-run of the time the Windows Phone people carried an iPhone in a coffin through the streets of Redmond announcing that iPhone was dead. But I seem to have misplaced my WIndows Phone somewhere. Hey Siri... where did I put my WIndows Phone....
  • Everyone wants to have a monopoly. It's the point of being in business.

    Which one of FAANGs isn't?

    Twitter? A long way from the action. Also, Netflix not looking so good. Time to update FAANG to just FAAG?
  • Clueless Microsoft "innovation" as usual... This is just the evolution of the "Microsoft Shopping Assistant" integrated into Edge that nobody asked for. They realized that sketchy toolbars are the only real use case of Edge and decided to corner that market.

  • ... building a "super app" ...

    The people who run Bing Maps need to be shot, it is the most popular service and also the least useful. I don't mean 50 or 100 metres of occasional inaccuracy, it is 80% of the shops in town and I know that one is 2,000 metres out of position . Bing Search is similarly under-powered. But Google has started putting a nag screen on every second page I visit and a colleague's phone demands a Google Review (think Yelp Review) every time he walks out of a shop. So Microsoft, with their half-arsed databases,

  • I don't want my search results tainted by advertisers payments. It has made Google a barely usable pig already.

  • sounds like microsoft wants to build the next altavista to take on google. good luck with that.

  • So "innovation" from Microsoft is to copy WeChat which is made in China which everybody said they only copy and never innovate.

  • How about a PRECISE search app? (Score:3)

    by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @07:05PM (#63108938)

    How about a PRECISE search app? One that can exclude shopping and is less vulnerable to SEO.

    Google has turned to shit along with the rest.

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