Microsoft designed Bing interface similar to Google Search to 'trick' users?

If you can't get customers to choose your product voluntarily, make it look almost like your competitor. This is the tactic Microsoft is using on Bing to attract users from the dominant name: Google Search.

From ad injection to automatically displaying misleading malware banners—Windows users have been through it all before. The Redmond company has now come up with another trick to trick inexperienced users into visiting Bing instead of Google.

Recently, there have been more and more cases of users reporting that Bing is disguising itself as Google's search engine, even down to the center image art and search bar design. The page even scrolls down a bit to hide the usual Microsoft Bing header with the logo, the standard search bar, and tabs like Copilot, Images, Videos, Maps, etc.

Bing search results will quickly scroll down a bit to hide the Microsoft Bing logo. The page also adds a new search bar right below the group of images, which many people may mistake for a Google Doodle. There's even a small notification below the search bar that looks like it's on Google.com.

Traditional search results are still there, but they'll be placed in a location that's hard to quickly spot. Then, typing anything into the search bar will result in a Bing search.

This happens whenever you search for a keyword with google on Bing or Microsoft Edge browser address bar without signing in to Microsoft account.

Microsoft designed Bing interface similar to Google Search to 'trick' users? Picture 1

The Bing interface has been cleverly designed to make it easy for users to confuse Bing with Google. This seems to be a deliberate strategy on Microsoft's part. This only stops if you sign in with a Microsoft account. The quick change in design is probably enough to get someone to do an extra search or two on Bing.

Microsoft designed Bing interface similar to Google Search to 'trick' users? Picture 2

This intentional behavior is clearly aimed at inexperienced or inattentive users who are used to the Google Search homepage (for many Windows users, Edge is simply a tool used to download the Google installer so they can download Chrome, while Bing is simply a shortcut to Google).

Again, if you use Microsoft Edge, you can always switch to Google Search as the default search engine in the address bar by going to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Address bar and search > Search engine used in address bar.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 07 January 2025