Google Stops Microsoft Tricking Windows Users—New Update Fails

Microsoft has suddenly backtracked after being caught “tricking” users, with a homepage designed to look and feel like Google’s own when Windows users searched for Google itself. The head of Chrome accused the Windows-maker of a “new year, new low,” criticizing its “long history of tricks to confuse users and limit choice.”

This was the latest in a succession of questionable tactics to covert Chrome users to Edge and Google Search users to Bing. Windows Latest was first to spot the latest ruse, reporting “a pretty interesting yet controversial change that spoofs Google.com UI when you try to find Google when using Bing.com. This is a genius move to keep you from Google search, which has become a synonym for search engines or finding answers online.”

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Now The Verge reports that Microsoft has “quietly killed” this spoofed Google homepage, returning Bing’s look and feel to Microsoft’s own rather than the mimic of Google’s. Chrome’s Parisa Tabriz had fairly quickly posted after Microsoft was called out for this, acknowledging that while “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users and limit choice.”

Microsoft isn’t commenting on these events, but while it has failed to make much of a dent in Chrome’s dominance, with the Google browser continuing to retain anreven grow its vast desktop audience, there may be a different story emerging on search. As reported by Search Engine Land, “Google’s search market share drops below 90% for first time since 2015. In a surprising development, Google's global search market share was less than 90% for the final three months of 2024.”

Clearly, this is still serious dominance with the number still sky high, but it’s an unexpected nonetheless. “Cleary, we’re seeing a trend here with Google losing search market share,” Search Engine Land says. “Google’s U.S. search market share peaked at 90.37% in November, but fell to 87.39% in December.” That said, it was fairly level “in the other months of 2024... varying between 86-88%,” and so it’s a trend with an awful long way to go.

In terms of beneficiaries from the dip, “Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo each gained some of Google’s lost share.” But there’s an unassailable gap still in place. “Second-place Microsoft Bing hovered at or just under 4% for the final five months of 2024.” In that, this does seem similar to Edge chipping away at Chrome’s market share.

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This search dominance has prompted ongoing antitrust investigations that could lead to major changes in how Google operates with its search partners and routes to market, and could even impact Chrome. The latest turn of events has come in the U.K., where this week the Competition and Markets Authority confirmed a new investigation, with its CEO Sarah Cardell saying “millions of people and businesses rely on Google's search and advertising services - with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 U.K. businesses advertising there... We want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”

Google responded with a published statement: “People across the U.K. trust Google Search to help them find what they need,” it said. “Google’s products, including Search, helped to provide an estimated £118 billion in economic activity in 2023 in the U.K., supporting over a million businesses across the country,” warning of the inevitable “trade-offs inherent in any new regulations.” Google assured that “we will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the U.K. to benefit from helpful and cutting edge services."