Microsoft copies Google interface to fool Bing users

Microsoft’s search engine adapts the interface depending on what you are looking for. Bing copies Google’s search results interface for users who search Google in Bing.

Microsoft would love for you to use Bing. Microsoft would also like you to stop using Bing to search Google. And the Redmond firm may have found a solution, quite vicious, to achieve its ends. When you search for Google in Bing, Microsoft’s search engine adapts the interface of its search results to pretend to be Google.

Microsoft’s dishonest way to keep you on Bing

On Windows, users who are bold enough to use Microsoft Edge and its default search engine to search for Google are entitled to preferential treatment. As spotted Windows LatestMicrosoft tailors Bing’s search results interface based on what you’re looking for.
By launching a lambda query from the Edge address bar, the Bing interface is the one we all know, with the Microsoft Bing logo pinned to the top left, the search field at the top of the window and search results below.

On the other hand, if you type Google in the address bar of Microsoft Edge, the Bing search results interface is no longer the same. To make you believe that you have arrived on Google’s search engine, Bing first displays an interface that looks exactly like that of Google. A large, centered image, which resembles the traditional Google doodle, and the search box grafted just below.

And a very discreet mention “Promoted by Microsoft” at the top left of the window. The link displayed by Bing in its search results and which allows access to Google is relegated to the bottom of the window. Microsoft even went so far as to hide the Bing search box, which comes out of hiding as soon as you start scrolling the page.

Microsoft takes advantage here of the fact that you search for Google on Bing (from the Edge address bar), to display a small self-promo page. This “interface” which mimics that of Google is in fact an advertisement, a smart choice on the part of Microsoft, but which remains questionable since it has no other aim than to deceive you into staying on Bing.