Microsoft set to force Bing on Chrome users

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jarledb

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#265481 23-Jan-2020 16:01

This is pretty evil, thought the evil days of Microsoft were over:

ZDNet: Microsoft to forcibly install Bing search extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus users

So from mid-February you can expect Microsoft to install a Chrome extension that will set Bing as the default search engine in Chrome if you use Office 365 ProPlus.

"The only situation where the extension won't be installed is if Bing is already the default search engine in Chrome."

How nice.

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Amanzi
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#2405434 23-Jan-2020 17:23

I agree this is not a good move by Microsoft, hope they come to their senses and make this an opt-in feature.

aschteev

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#2405444 23-Jan-2020 17:52

Isn't this essentially how malware spreads? Or those toolbars and default search engines that used to hijack browsers back in the day?

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jarledb

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#2405454 23-Jan-2020 18:16

I wonder how easy it will be for Google to block this extension, seems like malware to me too.

DarthKermit

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#2405468 23-Jan-2020 19:06

Who the hell uses bing?

robjg63

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#2405475 23-Jan-2020 19:15

DarthKermit:

Who the hell uses bing?

Well yes - I agree - But recently I have has a few google searches that haven't returned exactly what I wanted.

Its actually surprising how different the results are with bing.

Not sure that MS should be just changing without giving the user a choice though...

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jarledb

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#2405476 23-Jan-2020 19:16

DarthKermit:

Who the hell uses bing?

From mid-February, most people with Office 365 ProPlus and Chrome, it would seem.

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#2405488 23-Jan-2020 19:27

DarthKermit:

Who the hell uses bing?

If you use Office 365, you can configure Bing to search for content in your Office 365 account along with regular Web queries. So there are some potential advantages to using Bing, but still a crappy move by Microsoft to do this.

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#2405507 23-Jan-2020 20:13

Thankfully this doesn't affect NZ users and is easy to control / stop either by the Office365 ADMX setting or Google Chrome ADMX (blacklist / whitelist extensions which orgs should be doing for security anyway 😁).
I can see why they're pushing this. Office365 search via bing is actually really good if you're in the O365 ecosystem, It's just a shame the web search isn't as good as google for most things.

At this time, the extension will only be installed on devices in the following locations, based on the IP address of the device:

Australia
Canada
France
Germany
India
United Kingdom
United States

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/microsoft-search-bing

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nathan

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#2405667 24-Jan-2020 10:02

Go to your Microsoft 365 admin portal, navigate to Message Center, find MC201872, mark dislike, and provide a reason.

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#2405770 24-Jan-2020 12:28

robjg63:

DarthKermit:

Who the hell uses bing?

Well yes - I agree - But recently I have has a few google searches that haven't returned exactly what I wanted.

Its actually surprising how different the results are with bing.

Not sure that MS should be just changing without giving the user a choice though...

Last time I used Bing was searching to buy some software licences .
Bing , in its infinite wisdom, gave me links to pirating/warez websites instead , as the first 6 or so search hits
Never again .

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#2406123 24-Jan-2020 15:22

Andib:

Thankfully this doesn't affect NZ users

Yes it will, just not in mid-February. From the story I linked to:

"The first to receive the extensions will be users in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but users in other countries will follow, over time, Microsoft said."

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#2406138 24-Jan-2020 15:53

I'm surprised they aren't auto installing Edge 😂 surely a web browser can be considered an integral part of an office productivity suite?

MikeB4

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#2406140 24-Jan-2020 16:01

I thought they have moved beyond this sort of stuff. This seems right out of the Balmer play book. Not cool.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#2406150 24-Jan-2020 16:36

I am using Edge Chromium and logged in to my Office 365 tenant at work. From the Bing search you will see both web results and content from your organisation via Delve/OneDrive, Active Directory and more.

Pretty handy.

This is not for consumer so not sure why that big deal. Policies exist to change how these things work.

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#2406155 24-Jan-2020 16:48

I found it interesting reading the headline of this thread vs reading the content of the actual article from MS.

basically, they are releasing a plugin for chrome that enables bing search. There instructions on how to remove it, turn it on and off etc. Just like with every other plug-in.

considering it is an office 365 plugin and they are only releasing it for 365 pro plus! I am not sure what the issue is.

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