https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/microsofts-sneaky-plan-to-switch-chrome-searches-from-google-to-bing/
Long story short, Those with Office 365 get this extension thrown at them and will have their default search engine changed to Bing.
Par for the course for Microsoft. I have no idea why, but my work computer won't leave my default browser set as Chrome, and resets it to Internet Exploder every time I log in.
They've become more or less known as Microshaft with every notable incident like this one.
Since Microsoft can't seem to ever make a good browser, they are having to use some software from a rival to make one. Yes, Microsoft is using Chromium to create a browser..
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/06/microsoft-edge-making-the-web-better-through-more-open-source-collaboration/ (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/06/microsoft-edge-making-the-web-better-through-more-open-source-collaboration/)
Sounds vaguely familiar....
Oh yes, the shit Microsoft did to Netscape about 20 years ago.
We already have court outcomes against Microsoft literally addressing the same thing from 20-ish years ago. Amazing. I've never seen a company that just doesn't give a shit more than Microsoft.
Quote from: SectorZ on January 24, 2020, 08:21:04 AM
Amazing. I've never seen a company that just doesn't give a shit more than Microsoft.
Photobucket?
As someone who works with them on a daily basis, I've seen a leapfrog in how the company operates. Most of what they've done in the past few years have been great as they've finally listened to their customers, reduced their dependency on Windows, and actually started building applications that are cross-platform (e.g. Teams, Planner, Project for the Web). From an enterprise perspective, there is no parallel. But they can screw up and I think this is one of the bigger issues that they self-created in the past year.
For what it's worth, Microsoft won't "take over your browser." It adds an extension to Google Chrome without your authorization and forces Chrome to use Bing versus Google as the search engine. This also only applies for enterprise Office 365 accounts (e.g. if you are on the A1, A3, A5 plans and so forth), not personal Microsoft 365 accounts, so your home computer will not be affected unless you log in to your Microsoft products with an enterprise login.
There are some benefits from an enterprise perspective: it allows for deep searching into Active Directory and utilizes Delve for its indexing capabilities. But forcing this on users is never a good move.
For what it's worth, here is how to use group policy and the Office Deployment Tool to stop it from happening: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/microsoft-search-bing
--
And if you haven't tried it already, download the new Edge browser at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge. It surprisingly works well because it uses the Chromium engine versus the home-grown EdgeHTML and Chakra engines, and supports Chrome plug-ins. Very useful from an enterprise perspective.
Quote from: 1 on January 24, 2020, 08:28:04 AM
Quote from: SectorZ on January 24, 2020, 08:21:04 AM
Amazing. I've never seen a company that just doesn't give a shit more than Microsoft.
Photobucket?
Kmart/Sears
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 09:05:45 AM
For what it's worth, Microsoft won't "take over your browser." It adds an extension to Google Chrome without your authorization and forces Chrome to use Bing versus Google as the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 02:07:10 PM
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
I have to use SharePoint for maintaining Web pages at work. I recently was updated -- I refuse to call it an upgrade -- to Windows 10. I attempted to open the SharePoint page in Edge the other day, and it automatically opened IE and loaded the page in that browser. I guess Edge isn't capable of doing SharePoint stuff?
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2020, 02:24:16 PM
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 02:07:10 PM
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
Makes me think of this
Simpsons episode:
Quote from: SectorZ on January 24, 2020, 08:21:04 AM
Amazing. I've never seen a company that just doesn't give a shit more than Microsoft.
On the topic of tech, Electronic Arts. Their days of creating good video games are over. Now, they are just trying to stuff as many shitty micro-transactions in their games as possible.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49436196671_2fe570c072_w.jpg)
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2020, 02:24:16 PM
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 02:07:10 PM
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
No. You'll get a Google search that way.
However, if you type "funny salamander memes" directly into the address bar, you'll get a Bing search.
And if you have a dedicated search bar in your browser toolbars, it will also default to Bing.
Quote from: Duke87 on January 24, 2020, 11:27:37 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2020, 02:24:16 PM
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 02:07:10 PM
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
No. You'll get a Google search that way.
However, if you type "funny salamander memes" directly into the address bar, you'll get a Bing search.
And if you have a dedicated search bar in your browser toolbars, it will also default to Bing.
Cool. Then my browsing experience will remain unaffected. I don't search from the address bar, because that's where addresses go. My homepage on Chrome is set to Google on every computer I use, too, so there's no point in searching from the address bar for me: the search field is right there in the middle of the homepage.
Quote from: kphoger on January 25, 2020, 12:34:26 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on January 24, 2020, 11:27:37 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2020, 02:24:16 PM
Quote from: seicer on January 24, 2020, 02:07:10 PM
If you have an enterprise Office 365 ProPlus license, an extension is added to Google Chrome that changes your default search engine to Bing (versus Google). The extension has deep ties to Microsoft Delve and Active Directory, so it's more than just changing the search engine.
So... if I open Chrome, go to www.google.com, type "funny salamander memes", and click the "search" button... It will redirect me to a www.bing.com search?
No. You'll get a Google search that way.
However, if you type "funny salamander memes" directly into the address bar, you'll get a Bing search.
And if you have a dedicated search bar in your browser toolbars, it will also default to Bing.
Cool. Then my browsing experience will remain unaffected. I don't search from the address bar, because that's where addresses go. My homepage on Chrome is set to Google on every computer I use, too, so there's no point in searching from the address bar for me: the search field is right there in the middle of the homepage.
Merged address/seach areas are standard across
every major browser, and have been for a while. Having search and URLs be separate is old fashioned (no need to set Google to your home page, by the way - the new tab page now has a search bar too, and it has shortcuts to your most frequently visited sites, too). Plus just using the address bar saves you the trouble of opening a new tab/window when you're done with the current page and want to search something. Heck, I've even gone further and added custom search engines for things like Wikipedia, YouTube, Google Translate, etc. (alas, I lost the one I had for Weather Underground when they deleted some old search URLs and replaced them with a system that can't be plugged in to Chrome... so annoying!).
Quote from: vdeane on January 25, 2020, 11:43:18 PM
no need to set Google to your home page, by the way - the new tab page now has a search bar too
But isn't that going to search Bing now instead of Google? I'm confused...
I don't know if the new tab page search/address box relies on default search engines or not.
Just tested it. It does. You'll know if that happens, however, since the whole page changes to a Bing new tab page.
I remember a few years ago when we removed a Google search box that was in one of our internal applications. We had (sadly) more than one person that wrote to us and said:
"You took away our Google!" (Probably fists shaking in the air.)