Microsoft Bing hits 100M active users in bid to grab share from Google | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Bing hits 100M active users in bid to grab share from Google

theverge.com

43 pointscarlycue28 comments

Probably counting the Windows 11 users forced to use Bing search integrated into the OS https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23618214/microsoft-window...

That's fine. Microsoft doesn't care how many people choose Bing. They just care how many ad views they get and how many ad views they prevent Google getting.

I mean, how is that different from Google doing the same on Android?

I don't use Bing or Edge simply because of how shameless Microsoft has become in trying to shove ads in my face. It's disgusting and deplorable. I don't care if their products are any better, I avoid Microsoft products and services as much as possible. Things like turning half the start menu into a space for ads. Things like integrating shopping extensions into Edge. Things like using Windows Update to add a worthless "Meet Now" button to the tray. Utterly fed up with it and I'm put off by everything Microsoft these days.

> I don't use Bing or Edge simply because of how shameless Microsoft has become in trying to shove ads in my face

So do use Google and do you own an Android phone?

You must be confused with iOS. It makes you use the App Store and Apple News, both of which have shove ads down your throat. On Android, you can use whatever news app or app store you like.

So you mean there is no other News app for iOS?

And unless you are running a deGoogled phone, you are still being tracked for ads.

Can you uninstall Apple News from your iPhone? You can't — worse, you can't on MacOS either. Every Apple News link you open will be sent to Apple with the Apple ID you logged into your phone with. This isn't the case in Android.

> And unless you are running a deGoogled phone, you are still being tracked for ads.

No more so than on iOS. I can simply not log into a Google account or use any Google apps on even an Android phone produced by Google. Better, my app usage won't be tracked by Apple or anybody else for ads. But we're going off on a tangent — the original point was having ads shoved in our faces.

Can you replace your IOS with purely opensource os?

How does “open source” magically make my phone better?

You can build a community around it that cares about what you care about.

Does your Android phone do any of that? Mine doesn't.

You own a phone whose operating system is given away for free to OEMs made by an adTech company. Why do you think Google distributes Android?

Maybe he runs Lineage or Graphene without any Google apps

I paid money for my Android phone. It was not free.

This is not the success Microsoft wants though. It's only a matter of time before Bing Chat hallucinates an incorrect fact about a particularly litigious company, and then it's game over.

I think this is also part of the reason Google wants to roll out BARD/LaMDA in a very limited set of contexts.

No, this is solely because a) chatbot responses are much more expensive than traditional search as well as b) monetizing them is also an unsolved problem, and together both reasons have to potential to eliminate googles profits in deadly amounts.

Everything else are bullshit excuses from google to mask their dire situation and people tend to actually believe it.

Microsoft can fuck up big time and is still standing strong, since they have an actual core business while search is just some playground for them - and I bet they are willing to set everything on fire when google dies in the process, because they can reboot the next iteration afterwards and have their enterprise sales/cashflows largely unaffected.

Companies can bid to have their name injected into the prompt, based on keywords in the original prompt. Or better yet, based on initial gpt response to the prompt. "If response mention nike, insert adidas in prompt and regenerate"

Right now it is just inserting ads when they fit the topic. For example when searching for clothing you will also see referrals/ads for the thing you searched for.

Already fully switched to bing few weeks ago on all my browsers

Wait I thought the LLM was only available on Edge?

Are you able to use it on Chrome/Firefox?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bing-chat-for...

For chrome there was Bing Unchained, until it got removed from the chrome store.

Will they stop screwing around and actually release Bing Ai to the masses?, or do they want to keep the hype train going for as long as possible?

For now, I think you have to sign up at https://www.bing.com/new and get added to a waitlist. Some people were approved within a few days, I think I had to wait a few weeks but am able to play with the Bing chatbot now.

A drop in the bucket vs Google but it's a start.

The article cites 1 billion daily active for Google and 100M for Microsoft. 10% is more than a drop in the bucket!

I would be happy with 100m daily active users. That's a hell of an audience in most peoples books regardless of googles numbers

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