Microsoft ‘back to business’ with the new Edge browser and aggressiveness in your promotion is crossing red lines. If we have already seen how it appropriated data from other browsers without consent, now they have been discovered dark patterns they do not leave the company’s strategy in good place.
Go ahead that -in our opinion- is the best web browser ever produced by Microsoft. We have been using it in Windows 10 since the first beta version and it is a consistent alternative to Chrome. With a Chromium base that today is the best that can be used in a browser (except for what comes from Mozilla Firefox), it has improved the performance of the original, compatibility with standards or privacy, in addition to presenting its own low interface the ‘Fluent Desing’ design and you can use the extensions available for Chrome and your own.
The problem is that Microsoft has squandered the monopoly achieved with Internet Explorer since it defeated Netscape and once users try other things (as good as Chrome or Firefox) return is very difficult. Despite the significant improvements to the Edge browser, the market share improvement has not yet materialized and the company is desperate to advertise it. And not always with good arts.
The last one is a fake popup “Amazing” in the Bing search engine when you’re looking for an alternative browser. The banner is designed to resemble the usual look and feel of the file download user interface after clicking the download link, suggesting that Microsoft is once again engaged in unethical dark patterns that trick users into thinking they have no choice but to follow Microsoft’s suggestion and download the browser, if only to make the popup disappear.
Furthermore, many users will be reminded of the behavior of malware ads. Microsoft has responded to criticism on the Edge Insider support page, saying that hHe will speak to the marketing team and has responded directly to the user who reported this type of ad that a company like Microsoft should not implement:
Thank you for drawing our attention here. We are very sorry to hear that these notifications compromise your browsing, especially when using Microsoft Edge! This is certainly not the experience we intend to provide, and we take reports like this seriously, especially when they come from one of our longtime expert testers. We work closely with the marketing team, so I will pass this on to you. In the meantime, it would be helpful if you and anyone else who sees this can send feedback and diagnostic data », explain.
We repeat ourselves. The new Edge browser is good enough for users to try and use it. In a reasonable time, it will gain market share. Overcoming all the above bugs and beating Google Chrome is out of reach (at least for now) and Microsoft shouldn’t be looking for unethical “shortcuts”.
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