Microsoft Is Offering Rewards Points for Using Edge Instead of Google Chrome (pcmag.com)
- Reference: 0180057016
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/200220/microsoft-is-offering-rewards-points-for-using-edge-instead-of-google-chrome
- Source link: https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-is-offering-rewards-points-for-using-edge-instead-of-google-chrome
> Microsoft employs various schemes to stop Edge users from switching to Chrome, and the latest includes financial rewards for sticking with the browser. As spotted by Windows Latest, select users who search on Bing within Microsoft Edge for a link to download Google Chrome are now shown an offer to stay with the browser. It [1]gives users 1,300 Microsoft Rewards points , which can be redeemed for gift cards (examples include Amazon, Roblox, and Spotify) or donated to one of over 2 million nonprofits.
[1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-is-offering-rewards-points-for-using-edge-instead-of-google-chrome
1300 Microsoft Reward Points? (Score:4, Interesting)
One time? And the minimum number of points you can redeem is how many tens of thousands?
I did sort of RTFA, but I wasn't about to click even more links to possibly fail to find out.
That has to be illegal, somehow! (Score:3)
Come on, they're paying people to use their bundled browser, on their operating system? Isn't that taking anticompetitive practices to a new level? To be fair, Edge isn't that bad, it's not good, but it's not bad, if they can't get organic growth, maybe just sunset it, or, be happy anyone uses it.
Re: (Score:2)
The bad thing with Edge is that on every new machine I'll have to spend time to answer a huge number of questions and waste time to ensure that the next time I start the browser get a blank page as start page.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, that's annoying.
You can (kinda) do stuff with those points (Score:2)
I use Bing, and I get Microsoft Rewards points for that. Each month, the points I earn are automatically donated to the Wikimedia Foundation. Just sayin'.
Re: You can (kinda) do stuff with those points (Score:3)
I trust m$ sharing money... ahem 'points' ... to the Wikimedia Foundation as much as Uber sharing tips money with the drivers.
I don't even know why they care (Score:2, Interesting)
They already direct you to their products and services in many other ways. They have bing search built right into the OS, start menu, task bar. Why do they care what browser you use to access their stuff? They should be happy not to have to update and maintain a browser and focus their resources on other things.
SAD, verysad (Score:3)
If you have to bribe....err...I mean 'reward' people to use your product....your product probably isn't good.
Re: (Score:2)
I use Firefox as my second (reserve) browser, and the primary is not Chrome based either.
Rewards Points are pretty useless to me anyway, I use Windows 10 (made the mistake of "upgrading" from Windows 7) maybe once a month on average, and not for browsing or email.
This smells (Score:2)
This smells of desperation.
Re: This smells (Score:2)
Because it's a desperate move.
Can I ... (Score:2)
... use those points to buy stuff at the Apple store?
Wait! Never mind. It turns out that I can buy an infinite number of Linux installs with them.
Shameless plug for Kagi (Score:2)
...I pay $10/month for my search results, and I'd rather pay Kagi $10/month than use Edge and Bing....and the worst part, is that I don't find Bing results to be *that* bad...certainly, no worse than Google results at this stage...but it's because Edge and Bing are just an *INCESSANT ASSAULT ON WHAT I WANT TO DO*.
"I'm searching for [thing]"
"Here are thirteen things that match pretty well with [thing] - ten based on our heuristics, three sponsored results that most closely match."
"Thanks!"
That's all I want a
Re: (Score:2)
DuckDuckGo (Bing) doesn't have the Microsoft adverts in it and the garbage links (enshittification) are much fewer than Google.
Google Maps building details is frequently out-of-date. Bing Maps frequently puts buildings on the wrong street.
Well (Score:2)
I only use Chrome on my android phone. On the PC I use Firefox related browsers, apart from watching Formula 1 where I have to use Edge, but I don't use it for anything else.
Bribery (Score:2)
It's probably not legal, but M$ has always thought they were above the law.
Suddenly... (Score:2)
Your data now has value they are willing to pay for.
The advertising side must be slowing down as more and more popped install ad blockers.
And cash... (Score:2)
I'm up to $1500 cash back rewards.
Google respond (Score:2)
Microsoft isn't actively blocking Google Chrome this time: Still, Google should complain. This anti-competitive behaviour should be a reason for de-licensing the Edge clone. Or, Google makes their newly-purchased OS free to everyone.
I wonder what they'd pay... (Score:1)
...to get my security-conscious workplace to allow use of Edge for browsing sites outside our own Intranet.
That's the kind of tacit endorsement I'd need to see before even considering it for personal use.
It's come to this... (Score:5, Interesting)
They will literally *pay you* to use their browser.
It's extremely funny right at the moment, as Slashdot's sidebar that shows historical stories showed one from ... 2004, I want to say, that read "Microsoft says Firefox not a threat to IE" or something similar.
It would be amusing if Microsoft wasn't doing so much infuriating crap with Windows.
Re: (Score:3)
And your dog will play with you because you have a pork chop tied around your neck.
Microsoft Walgreens(tm) (Score:2)
I simply refuse to use an OS that leans so hard on trying to modify my behavior. It would be like living in a house that constantly tried to control what toilet paper I used or if my fridge started "awarding" me "points" based on what I eat.
Fuck every last bit of that.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know why they can't just put more money into making a browser that isn't crap. This would seem to be easier than trying to pay people to use a garbage browser.
Re: (Score:2)
One simple thing that M$ can do is to stop with all the crap questions they ask for every first start of Edge and at the end throw up MSN.
All I want is a blank browser screen without a lot of crap that just creates information overload.
Re: It's come to this... (Score:2)
I said Facebook should pay a dividend to users like this years ago to cement market share. Not that *I* want that, but it would be a business good tactic in a hyper competitive world.
Actually, In the ancient past at one point... after Facebook had billions, and was the new juggernaut, and before or just around the release of the iPhone... I guess 2006-ish?... Apple stock was down and FB had cash on hand. I said FB should buy Apple and give it to anyone who used Facebook ... they would own the world by now.