It’s in the interest of Microsoft to try and keep Windows 10 users utilizing the ecosystem that Microsoft has set up, and that means that Microsoft Edge needs to start taking some people away from Chrome and Firefox. In a recent change to the browser, if Microsoft Edge users search for Chrome or Firefox on Bing, the browser will recommend Microsoft Edge to them (first spotted by VentureBeat).
Chrome has been giving users similar pop-ups for a long time, reminding users to make Chrome their default browser. This seems to commonplace for many browsers, and for good reason: they want to try and retain users. Whether or not these pop-ups actually do anything is dubious, however. It’s hard to imagine that anybody who is deliberately searching for Chrome or Firefox is enough on-the-fence to be dissuaded by a polite suggestion from Bing.
We seem to be in a time where people are fairly loyal to the browser that they use, and even if Microsoft Edge was objectively the best one out there, it would take a lot to convince the more stubborn web-surfers to abandon Chrome and Firefox. We’ll see if Edge starts to get some more attention when its feature list becomes more robust.
