this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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When you visit the Google's chatbot bard's website in Microsoft Bing. A New Button pops up besides the search bar which lets you compare bard results with Bing chat's. I have no idea why they implemented this, well maybe to show off the their chatbot is better than bard or something?

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[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 130 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft needs another good antitrust lawsuit. They're so aggressive about pushing their products.

I haven't heard many other people complain about it so it was probably a very short term thing, but I'll never forget when they updated windows defender to identify the chrome installer as highest-threat malware so that its download would be blocked, and if you forced the download windows would instantly delete the installer for your own protection.

[–] Huschke@programming.dev 59 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] ForthEorlingas@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta. Pretty much all the big tech companies really need a visit from the FTC.

[–] Invertedouroboros@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Honestly the FTC should be handing out antitrust suits like candy. Late stage capitalism has created a bit of a target rich environment, if only the FTC could take advantage.

[–] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why not Apple, the closest company to having a monopoly on software running on smart phones in the USA.

[–] ferralcat@monyet.cc 3 points 1 year ago

Apple and Google have both done similar things. Osx will ask you to use safari if you install a different browser. Google shows "it's better in chrome!" on basically all of their properties if you're using non chromium based browsers. No one seems to really give a shit.

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[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly the way Microsoft handles things rubs me worse than Google. It's specifically the way that Microsoft watches what you do, and then tries to stop and convince you to use their stuff instead. And they don't respect you saying no once, instead trying to stop you at every step in the process.

[–] EnglishMobster@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Google does the same.

I don't use Chrome. Every single time I go to any Google service, it tells me I need to be using Chrome. It doesn't take "no" for an answer; it's a constant nag.

Google Docs especially gets mad and doesn't even let you paste without formatting.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If they're still using Edge at this point, you're wasting your breath.

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

we have windows 11 on our work machines. The OS and Office 365 apps are forcing more and more links to open in Edge instead of the default browser. Microsoft has been fined in the past over their push for Internet Explorer (at least in the EU), but what they are doing now has already become much worse.

[–] why@lemmy.sdf.org 55 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Is it me, or is that pretty anti consumer?

[–] nxfsi@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No more anti-consumer than Google saying that "the internet is best experienced in chrome" every time you open YouTube or Google search.

[–] out@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

at that point i consider it a microsoft tradition to do the "hey, i see you're using Y, we have a similar product called Z and it's better, do you want to try it?"-routine no one asked for.

[–] kite@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

"No one asked for this" should be Microsoft's tag line. Rather than fix problems that have been around for years - decades in some cases - they just keep adding crap that no one wants or asked for.

Everything from Microsoft or Google is anti everyone.

[–] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago

It's also shameless and pathetic.

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[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

PLEASE USE OUR PRODUCTS WE BEG YOU

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not really one to defend Google, but Microsoft is out of line on this (and a lot of other stuff they do). Sadly our Congresspeople are pretty much owned by these corps and won't do anything about it.

[–] what_is_a_name@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You mean like when you visit a Google service (Gmail, Google, Maps ...) on a non Chrome browser it bugs incessantly to switch?

It's pervasive and it stinks, but it's not Microsoft. It's our current capitalist gestalt.

[–] vinhill@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Never had this happen on Firefox yet.

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[–] moormaan@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I've been using Firefox for years to access Google services, and have never ever had a single issue. I hope it stays this way, with all this Web Environment Integrity shenanigans they are pushing for at the moment.

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[–] InternetTubes@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft has been acting for a monopoly for ages now. But Google was a newcomer, more transparent, and even tried to have a morally positive corporate motto for a time, given competitor propagandists the perfect opportunity to present it as the monopoly it was not. Google has always held itself too back, made their technology too open sourced, and allowed third party growth over their own to be an effective monopoly, and now the Google search engine is rapidly dropping in its effectiveness with the advent of closed off, cult-on-demand social networks, and they will still be damned because they performed targeted advertising first, yet in contrast to Facebook in a way where their user's data and personal identity has remained relatively safeguarded. Their biggest problem is being unable to operate within their environment or even outside it, as they clearly unwilling to move away from personalized ads because they have shit all revenue streams except for serving ads, even though it is such a necessity that it became one of the cornerstones of duckduckgo.

[–] JeffCraig@citizensgaming.com 2 points 1 year ago

Google left their "do no harm" motto in the dust long ago and is one of the largest internet monopolies of all time. Both companies suck in that regard.

But yeah, google search is getting worse and worse every day.

[–] spj@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft now has implemented "compare with Bing chat" button when you visit Google Bard in Edge

That title has so many brand names I feel like I'm reading infinite jest

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

FTFY

Microsoft now has implemented "compare with Microsoft Bing Chat™, an AI search engine powered by OpenAI GPT-4™" button when you visit Alphabet's Google Bard™ in Microsoft Edge™©®

[–] Amphobet@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 year ago

I hate big tech. I hate big tech.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

The AI hype is getting to be even worse than the NFT hype

[–] Swarfega@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I liked Edge whilst it was in beta. It was just another browser. Now it's a browser caked with Microsoft services so they do their best to try to get you to use it. Even Outlook now opens links in Edge, yes ignoring your default browser settings, unless you go into Outlook and unconfigure it. Fuck off Microsoft.

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

That outlook setting is such a load of crap. Your two choices are "Microsoft Edge" or "Default Browser". Why even have that setting at all? Just use the default browser!

[–] Hildegarde@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Bing lets me use their AI chatbot search without creating an account.

Bing wins.

[–] sndrtj@feddit.nl 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While bard got some really bad reviews compared to chatgpt, I've honestly found it better with queries chatgpt struggled with. I have two examples:

  1. "Please write a python function that returns an exact solution to pi" Both come up with gregory-leibnitz formula, which of course is an approximation. When challenged that I want an exact solution instead of an approximation, chatgpt apologizes and then returns yet another approximation. Bard correctly claims that that is impossible as pi is an irrational number.
  2. "What can you tell me about a compound called polysac-active in cough syrups". Chatgpt hallucinates something about a company in Indonesia, which seems to have a product that sounds vaguely similar to one of the brands selling that compound. Bard, on the other hand, correctly surmises it's mostly honey and even gives some examples of real products that feature this ingredient.

In general, Bard in general seems one of the few llms that will tell me it doesn't know something or that something is impossible. IMHO that's better than just coming up with a hallucination.

[–] magnusrufus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I had kinda the opposite experience using Bard. It made up random technical details for the questions I asked. It assured me that it knew the contents of a document that it didn't have access to and generated what it claimed was information from that document rather than saying it couldn't read it and didn't know.

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[–] KTVX94@lemmy.myserv.one 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"...but as the company grew and became more..."

Evil

[–] dartos@reddthat.com 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You have no idea why? Really? It’s to get people thinking about / trying bing.

It’s all advertising.

We’re going to enter another search engine (read chatbot) war.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just wait until Google manages to bust out the internet DRM they've proposed. Then things will really get bad.

We almost need an entirely different internet at this point. Start over, we fucked up.

[–] kspatlas@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago

Gemini exists and the protocol is designed to be hard to extend deliberately, but it serves documents as a markdown-like format instead of modern html/css/js

[–] ilickfrogs@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

To be fair that could be a lot worse. I was expecting injected webpage content. I think this is acceptable and serves as a quick way to compare multiple sources. I dislike that it's Microsoft more than I do the actual "feature".

[–] federal_explorer@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As if there is any comparison, bing is miles better, especially in gpy-4 mode.

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[–] Bianca_0089@lemmy.today 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds pretty helpful to me. Like really old first-generation Opera when it was really proud of its ability to search like 15 different search engines by putting g or b or w or y or whatever in the address bar before typing a search query or when it had still had its own built-in email program

[–] Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

Hasn't this been there for months? I remember seeing this a while ago.

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

This will probably work for a lot of people, since as much as we hate this kind of marketing the products are genuinely competitive and many people will just pick the better solution.

If you ignore the improvement to Edge and Bing(AI) now it's out of spite of this polarising marketing, but just be aware that you're not the majority that this advertising is aimed at.

[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

Probably to collect data on comparative performance.

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does Bard work with VPNs? Microsoft has completely blocked access.

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[–] Pat@kbin.run 2 points 1 year ago

I'd like to recommend this video by a retired Microsoft OS engineer about how LLMs like ChatGPT and Bard work. It has lots of technical mumbo jumbo, but Dave tries to explain it in simpler terms.

[–] dunestorm@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's like a dick measuring contest; personally, I don't want AI shoved down my throat and my private data sold without my consent.

[–] Espi@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I like this way better than Microsoft just showing popups trying you to stick to their browser.

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