Windows 11 Pushing Bing Search Harder and Harder

When Windows 10 came out it was clear that Microsoft was trying its hardest to push Bing as the default search engine when browsing the internet, with the intention of slowly turning people away from the likes of Google to its own search engine.

Windows 11 Preview

When installing Windows 10 one of the first things lots of people would change was your default search engine to Google from Bing. And I am sure this led to countless searches on how to do just that. Some Windows updates even changed this setting back to Bing without the user knowing until searching the internet again.

Well if you thought the latest installment of Windows would hold back a little on this practice then think again. Windows 11 pushes this even harder along with its own browser Edge. The way that Windows handles default applications also make the process of switching more time consuming and may lead to more people using the Edge browser.

Now I personally have nothing against the browser however my personal choice is not Edge. That’s not to say I haven’t given it a thorough going over to see what’s new. If however Windows does turn peoples head towards its own browser then it may continue to entice people to use its search engine over other more popular brands.

Looking more like its competitors

If you search Bing then you are greeted with a set of results that are becoming more and more like its competitors and to the quick browsing eye the similarities are clear to see. Where most people would expect to find business listings on say Google they now find the same information on Bing. Results are also returned using richer result (the inclusion of logos, images, videos etc…) rather than plain text with the title as a link. With the exception of the starting page of Bing which has always gone for the background image as appose to a plain background of many other search engines. The differences visually are almost identical on both Google and Bing.

Still a long way from its biggest competitor

Clearly Bing has worked hard to make its search experience as close to its biggest rivals however with only having anywhere from 7-8% of the search engine market share it’s a long, long way from Google who’s market share is close to 88-90% worldwide. It does therefore beg the question why its operating system which is the most used worldwide does not just accept it position and cater more friendly to people’s choices rather than pushing its own brand. Alternatively creating a search engine experience that was innovative and new may offer a better chance for it to one day move closer to the likes of Google.