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Office 365 Pro-Plus to Change Chrome's Default Search Engine to Bing

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 29, 2000
Messages
40,958
Microsoft in their wisdom have decided that it makes sense for an imminent update to Office 365 ProPlus to install an extension in Chrome to change its search engine to Bing.

I can't even start to explain how much this makes my blood boil. Not only is it an abuse of Microsoft's market position to use their massive install base to try to force their other products on people. (I thought we had settled this almost 20 years ago guys.) but more than that, it is my firm belief that no one in any product, software or otherwise should be a situation in which a user is automatically enrolled and forced for opt out if they don't like it.

The default should always, no matter what, be opt-in.

Opt-out should remain an option, but only for users who first Opt-in, and later change their minds.

As raz-0 points out in this thread if you want to give Microsoft a piece of your mind on this issue, you can do so here.

(I just wouldn't count on it having any real impact, because more and more Microsoft doesn't appear to give a shit about anyone or anything. It might feel good though.)

Wouldn't it be great if Microsoft just stopped trying to be an ecosystem and went back to their corner of only making a barebones operating system I can install my own software of my choice onto, and a separate barebones office package with no extras I can install if I want it?
 
The battle for my data carries rages on. Frankly, both Microsoft and Google are evil at this point. There is no money in selling a product any more. It is all about milking people for as much money as you can, and our data is worth more to them than any one time payment.
Jerk move by MS. Google has done similar jerk moves through the years as well. Bing sucks.
Use Linux and Tor. This is the way.
 
I will post here as well.

If you are an o365 admin for your organization and this will impact you and you have support, call up and open a ticket. Doubly so if you have a BAA covering data privacy, HIPAA, FERPA, etc.

The shitstorm of the last 24 hours has gotten their attention, and now is the time to ratchet up the pressure. It's not enough to just win, we need to make them remember this and try not to step in it again next time.

For Xarathustra, it isn't that MS doesn't give a shit, it's that their agile process not only doesn't engage in second order thinking on the ramifications of design choices, it isn't even capable of it.
 
The fix is to continue giving them money. That'll show them.

btw, Bing is complete garbage. They literally don't give a shit for anyone living outside the US. Not a great recipe for success these days imho
 
I don't really like this, but that dislike is tempered by my growing dislike of Google. It's Google that sets the template for what is acceptable behavior on the web these days. Google gladly uses every one of it's products and services to try to push it's other products and services on people. So is it really that surprising when Microsoft tries to get a piece of the same pie using the one foot it still has in the door? I won't be shedding any tears for google.

The best solution is to uninstall Chrome.
 
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Microsoft has put out an emergency patch to undo this after several non-Microsoft employees now have more entries at the Microsoft Store for this month's Xbox prize.

(for those that don't know, hate to ruin the joke... you get Microsoft Points when you use Bing)
 
Just another example of Microsoft end users not really being in control anymore. From telemetry in Win 10 to going down the path of forced ads to now starting the process of dictating your search engine(to allow better control over collected telemetry, what better way to cut out Google?), we are getting trained to just accept that Microsoft now controls the computer. Maybe they are rolling it back now but like the ads in Win 10, this switch will be back.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
What ads in Windows 10?
Click to expand...
You’re joking right?

Free isn’t free
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has inserted ads for its premium products in Windows 10’s free apps – the Mail and Calendar apps also contain adverts. Even Windows 10 itself now comes with pre-installed games and ads in the Start menu, showing that Microsoft is looking at ways to get more money out of its users.

Microsoft is planning on adding adverts to Wordpad that encourage users to use Microsoft’s Office web apps instead.

Back when Microsoft offered Windows 10 as a free upgrade (which you can still get thanks to a loophole), many of us wondered if there was a hidden cost to Microsoft’s generosity. It seems this iit is.


https://www.techradar.com/news/micr...-10s-oldest-apps-but-you-wont-like-the-change
 
Bowman15 said:
I voted just for kicks and giggles. I also hate using Bing.
Click to expand...
I don't hate MS or Bing, I just hate it's results - they're always terrible.

I have one rarely used PC that keeps reverting to Bing every time Firefox updates itself, and the way I know it's happened again is because the search results are awful and have nothing to do with what I'm trying to find - it's always inmediately apparent.
 
Seems like a huge sh*tstorm of a turf war just waiting to happen between Microsloft & Goobgle.... I'll gladly just sit on the sidelines to see how it all plays out :p :eek: :LOL:
 
was expecting ad about ED, but they're just ads about MS... sad, I hate that disease a lot more
 
odditory said:
I don't hate MS or Bing, I just hate it's results - they're always terrible.

I have one rarely used PC that keeps reverting to Bing every time Firefox updates itself, and the way I know it's happened again is because the search results are awful and have nothing to do with what I'm trying to find - it's always inmediately apparent.
Click to expand...

The results are why I hate using Bing. Tell me how you separate the two when that's its job to be a search engine and it sucks?
 
but how else would you get those relevant ads, if they aren't tracking your personal notepad entries? time to go full-on sandbox/VM for online activity, keep corporate stuff offline at all costs? can it be done...
 
Ah, here we go, the argument of Bing sucks that really, no one cares about anyways. Google gives you a search result based upon their personal preferences, not yours and Bing is just Bing, take it or leave it, I am sure it works well enough. If you are so concerned, just use Duckduckgo and you will be set.

Edit: and no, I am not supporting this move in the thread but, I also could not care less. These practices have been solidified by Google and therefore, is considered normal, whether they are right or not. Still pisses me off that Google could not be blocked on Windows, at all but Google was not required to support their products on Windows Phone / Mobile, which essentially was a big reason that the Windows Phone died.
 
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Youn said:
but how else would you get those relevant ads, if they aren't tracking your personal notepad entries? time to go full-on sandbox/VM for online activity, keep corporate stuff offline at all costs? can it be done...
Click to expand...

Dude, I have not, ever received Bing ads in any of my programs or other such stuff. In fact, when I am at Outlook.com, the ads on the right side, which is expected to be there, are not even relevant at all and therefore, do not even match up with any of my data. Google, on the other hand and more specifically, Android..........

Edit: I do not camp out in any search engine, I find what I am looking for and move on.
 
For my corporate searches I don't care if Google or Microsoft get our business; since we're migrating from Google back to Microsoft we'll probably end up with Bing. As long as what I'm searching for is served it doesn't matter to me.

For personal searches, I use FIrefox with DuckDuckGo as my search provider. I have both a Hotmail and a Gmail address, so both companies can mine my emails for the couple of cents that's worth to them. :ROFLMAO:
 
Algrim said:
For my corporate searches I don't care if Google or Microsoft get our business; since we're migrating from Google back to Microsoft we'll probably end up with Bing. As long as what I'm searching for is served it doesn't matter to me.

For personal searches, I use FIrefox with DuckDuckGo as my search provider. I have both a Hotmail and a Gmail address, so both companies can mine my emails for the couple of cents that's worth to them. :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...

Yeah, from what I understand, you get more generic, politically neutral search results on DuckDuckGo. (Meaning, no one is trying to push their point of view as a corporation by controlling your search results.)
 
pendragon1 said:
i get the upset but i kinda dont mind them taking away a bit from google.
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What's in contention here is Microsoft hijacking a user setting without permission - one inside a third party product that doesn't belong to them. It's not about whether or not you prefer brand A or B.

Its just as annoying if Chrome or any Google product tries to change one of my user settings in Windows that doesn't belong to them.
 
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ManofGod said:
Ah, here we go, the argument of Bing sucks that really, no one cares about anyways. Google gives you a search result based upon their personal preferences, not yours and Bing is just Bing, take it or leave it, I am sure it works well enough. If you are so concerned, just use Duckduckgo and you will be set.

Edit: and no, I am not supporting this move in the thread but, I also could not care less. These practices have been solidified by Google and therefore, is considered normal, whether they are right or not. Still pisses me off that Google could not be blocked on Windows, at all but Google was not required to support their products on Windows Phone / Mobile, which essentially was a big reason that the Windows Phone died.
Click to expand...

Windows mobile died because it was messy and their app store had no content. Android was a far better mobile OS with a far more mature app store actually containing content.
 
I actually feel slightly comforted knowing the MS I knew is still there.
This embracing of other technologies and operating systems was starting to freak me out. <gollum> What is the master's thinksies? The master has planses, yessss? </gollum>

And now the world snaps back into focus. I prefer this to the "what the heck are they up to" model.
 
ManofGod said:
Dude, I have not, ever received Bing ads in any of my programs or other such stuff. In fact, when I am at Outlook.com, the ads on the right side, which is expected to be there, are not even relevant at all and therefore, do not even match up with any of my data. Google, on the other hand and more specifically, Android..........

Edit: I do not camp out in any search engine, I find what I am looking for and move on.
Click to expand...

Except you have an advertising ID as part of the OS itself, whether you 'camp' in a search engine or not. Unless you disable that advertising ID and recheck it every major update, Windows is tracking your movements just as much as Android is tracking your movements.

It's all in Settings > General > Privacy Options.

For what it's worth, you can disable that advertising ID under Android also - The thing is it's not mysteriously re enabled every major update.
 
You sure is not just cause thier own browser recently went Chromium and some genius loser didn't know how or bother to differentiate from Chrome?
 
I actually use bing probably 90% of the time, works great. Don't like that they would auto install a plugin to do the switch though.
 
FYI, they listened.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com...-bing-through-office-365-proplus/ba-p/1161030
On January 22, 2020 we announced in advance that the Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension would be made available through Office 365 ProPlus on Windows devices starting at the end of February. Since then, we’ve heard from many customers who are excited about the value Microsoft Search provides through Bing and the simplicity of deploying that value through Office 365 ProPlus. With Microsoft Search integrated, Bing becomes a single search engine for users to find what they need - both from inside their organization and the public web.



But we’ve also heard concerns about the way we were planning to roll this value out. Most importantly, we heard that customers don't want Office 365 ProPlus to change search defaults without an opt-in, and they need a way to govern these changes on unmanaged devices.



Based on your feedback, we are making a few changes to our plan:


  • The Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension will not be automatically deployed with Office 365 ProPlus.
  • Through a new toggle in Microsoft 365 admin center, administrators will be able to opt in to deploy the browser extension to their organization through Office 365 ProPlus.
  • In the near term, Office 365 ProPlus will only deploy the browser extension to AD-joined devices, even within organizations that have opted in. In the future we will add specific settings to govern the deployment of the extension to unmanaged devices.
  • We will continue to provide end users who receive the extension with control over their search engine preference.
Due to these changes, the Microsoft Search in Bing extension will not ship with Version 2002 of Office 365 ProPlus. We will provide an updated timeline for this rollout over the next few weeks. For more detailed information about deploying Microsoft Search in Bing through Office 365 ProPlus, please refer to this support article. Learn more about rolling out Microsoft Search in Bing to your organization by reading this user adoption guide.

Thank you for your ongoing feedback. Please continue to share with us through UserVoice.
Click to expand...
 
Mazzspeed said:
Windows mobile died because it was messy and their app store had no content. Android was a far better mobile OS with a far more mature app store actually containing content.
Click to expand...

I disagree wit this. Windows Phone 8.x (and to a lesser extent since it was never really finished, Windows Mobile 10) was not messy at all. It worked great, it looked great, and it was "teh snappy" all the time. The Lumia phones were well-built and affordable and the UI is STILL hands-down better than any other phone OS out there in my opinion. Heck, Windows Phone 7 was really good as well, but Microsoft shafted their own early adopters by mishandling the entire upgrade situation with those phones.

The death of Microsoft's Windows phone ambitions ultimately came down to lack of apps and marketshare, with the apps issue being directly related to the marketshare issue - all of which comes down to poor support from Microsoft for improving these things. Google's behavior was just the icing on the shit cake that was the overall app issue.

Edit off-topic mini rant: When Microsoft drops something, they really drop it like a hot potato. This happened with Windows Phone 7, and it has happened with Windows RT. The only reason my wife had to replace her Surface 2 RT tablet is because the only web browser on it is Internet Explorer. It is otherwise a perfect schoolwork device.
 
mvmiller12 said:
Windows Phone 7 was really good as well, but Microsoft shafted their own early adopters by mishandling the entire upgrade situation with those phones.
Click to expand...
yup. still bitter about that. bought a phone touted as 10 compatible then it wasnt. my "new' win10 phone is still working great though! you are right about apps/market share. me and the other 6 guys with a win phone just arent worth developing for. :)
 
mvmiller12 said:
I disagree wit this. Windows Phone 8.x (and to a lesser extent since it was never really finished, Windows Mobile 10) was not messy at all. It worked great, it looked great, and it was "teh snappy" all the time. The Lumia phones were well-built and affordable and the UI is STILL hands-down better than any other phone OS out there in my opinion. Heck, Windows Phone 7 was really good as well, but Microsoft shafted their own early adopters by mishandling the entire upgrade situation with those phones.

The death of Microsoft's Windows phone ambitions ultimately came down to lack of apps and marketshare, with the apps issue being directly related to the marketshare issue - all of which comes down to poor support from Microsoft for improving these things. Google's behavior was just the icing on the shit cake that was the overall app issue.

Edit off-topic mini rant: When Microsoft drops something, they really drop it like a hot potato. This happened with Windows Phone 7, and it has happened with Windows RT. The only reason my wife had to replace her Surface 2 RT tablet is because the only web browser on it is Internet Explorer. It is otherwise a perfect schoolwork device.
Click to expand...
I am butthurt because of their dropping of RT, I really wanted a viable alternative to Chromebooks in the classroom.
 
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