Edge has been spotted inserting a banner into the Chrome download page on Google.com

[robkelk]

Microsoft hijacks Google's Chrome download page to beg you not to ditch Edge

In this particular case, it's obvious content.

But if the software will change how one or two web pages are displayed, how do we know whether it will change how other pages are displayed?


(Me? I'm still using FireFox...)

[hazard]

Is this 'the Edge browser inserts a banner into the Google Chrome download page' or is this 'Microsoft is advertising on the Google Chrome download page'. Because these are different things.

[robkelk]

This is 'the Edge browser inserts a banner into the Google Chrome download page'. The article explains how.

[hazard]

... I am uncertain how legal that is in the EU.

[GethN7]

They can pry Brave out of my cold, dead hands.

[Matrix Dragon]

... I am uncertain how legal that is in the EU.

Going by the usual approach with such things, it's not, and someone thought being based in the US or such would let them get away with it.

[hazard]

That would work, Matrix, if nobody in Europe could get at it.

May I introduce you to a VPN?

[Matrix Dragon]

Well, yes, that's my point. There's a long history of international companies thinking only US law applies to them, and getting painful reminders that's not how it works.

[robkelk]

* robkelk blows dust off thread

Oh, look what they're doing now.

Microsoft probes complaints of Edge leaking URLs to Bing

You might want to think twice before typing anything into Microsoft's Edge browser, as an apparent bug in a recent release of Redmond's Chromium clone appears to be funneling URLs you visit back to the Bing API.

The issue, identified by Redditor HackerMcHackface in the r/browsers subreddit last week, appears to be related to an opt-out content aggregation feature in Edge, called Collections, which offers suggestions for online creators that users may want to follow.

However, beginning with Microsoft Edge build 112.0.1722.34, the Redditor notes that the default behavior had changed. In prior versions of Edge, they noted, the "feature" was limited to a subset of social media sites, including YouTube and Pinterest. Now the scope appears to be wider.

Which makes me think that it isn't a bug at all, based on Microsoft's past behaviour whenever they had a monopoly situation.

If you don't like Microsoft having a monopoly on your desktop, there's always Firefox.

[Labster]

No, there isn't Firefox. Firefox is now inserting ads into other websites, including on localhost.

Firefox displayed a pop-up ad for Mozilla VPN over an unrelated page

[robkelk]

Ah, blast. Any suggestions for a non-Chromium-based browser that runs on Win10 and win11, and doesn't pull these kind of stunts?

[Bob Schroeck]

At this point in years past I would have recommended Seamonkey, but as of the last year or so I have been growing dissatisfied with its instability on graphics-heavy pages and its incompatibility with many common sites when augmented by basic ad-blocking extensions. I'd like to know of a good alternative, too.

[Dartz]

I didn't see it at all. Appearrs to have just been a dumb mistake.

Anyway. Everything is shit and infuriating these days. We've lost the ability to vote with our feet. The only winning move is not to play.

[robkelk]

I read the comments on The Register's story on the Firefox ad insertion, and discovered LibreWolf. Looks like it might be worth trying out.