Bing now shows a Google-like search page when people search for Google

Another shady tactic from Microsoft to trick people into using Bing
Jan 6, 20251:11 PM EST
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Microsoft has garnered a reputation for using tricky tactics to get more people to use its Edge browser and Bing search engine. The company’s latest trick is making Bing look like Google when people search for Google.

Spotted by The Verge and 9to5Google, Bing has a new search results page that appears when searching for Google. It differs from Bing’s usual results page by adding a Google-esque illustration followed by an unlabeled Bing search bar. At a glance, the page could definitely pass for Google’s search page, though the illusion falls apart quickly if you look for even a few seconds.

The Verge reported that this page shows up when searching Google on Bing while signed out, but users who are signed in don’t see it. Moreover, it reported that the page scrolls down a little to hide the Bing logo and toolbar that appears on the top of the page to make it look even more like Google. While I could recreate the search page on my own, in my testing Bing didn’t autoscroll like how The Verge reported.

Bing’s usual results page continues below the Google-like search bar, with the first link being for Google itself. Still, as I said earlier, it’d be easy to mistake this for Google for anyone who doesn’t scrutinize the page or isn’t tech-savvy enough to recognize the differences between Google and Bing at a glance. It makes this feel like a pretty underhanded tactic to get people to do more Bing searches.

Unfortunately, this type of behaviour hardly comes as a surprise now. Microsoft has garnered a reputation for using shady tactics to get people to use Bing, which include modifying Chrome download pages, adding pop-ups into Chrome on Windows, and using Windows to constantly badger people to switch to Edge, which defaults to Bing search. And even if you successfully navigate all of that, Edge might suck up your browsing data even if you don’t use it.

What’s particularly frustrating about this is that Edge honestly isn’t a bad browser. In my testing, it often matches or beats Chrome when it comes to performance on Windows. But all of the extra Microsoft cruft jammed into it, along with the various shady tactics the company uses to push Edge on users, really sours the experience.

And it’s not like Google is innocent either, it leverages Chrome to push people to use Google search and other products. However, Google doesn’t feel as pushy and unlike Microsoft, isn’t bending the power of Windows to trick users.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Verge, 9to5Google

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