Microsoft To Force Bing Search in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus Users

Microsoft has announced that it will install a new Google Chrome extension for some Office 365 ProPlus customers that will force the browser to use Bing as the default search engine "to access relevant workplace information directly from the browser address bar." From a report: The Microsoft Search in Bing extension will be added to all new Office 365 ProPlus installations and when updating to newer releases. The only customers that won't have this Chrome extension installed automatically are those that already have set Bing as their default Chrome search engine. "Microsoft Search is part of Microsoft 365 and is turned on by default for all Microsoft apps that support it," Microsoft says. "Even after Bing is made the default search engine, your users can still change to a different default search engine in Google Chrome on their own."

Anittrust?

[Train0987]

It's way past time for Antitrust actions against Microsoft for continually changing default preferences that have already been set by the user. How do they think it's OK to change settings on people's computers? This would not be tolerated in any other service or industry.

The tried

[rsilvergun]

the Justice Department backed down because they couldn't get the resources. Meanwhile we're letting T-Mobile & Sprint merge, we're letting private equity firms buy up everything, and my rent just went up $300/mo because 2 companies own 90% of the apartments where I live.

I keep saying this but if we want this to change then we have to stop voting for these milktoast corporate centrists who sell us out time and again. That means no Joe Biden, no Pete Buttigieg and no Donald Trump (ok, he's at least not a milktoast, but he's still a corporatists).

Bernie Bro alert

[dfghjk]

Thinly disguised attack on Bernie's competition, as if these problems are caused by democratic moderates.

If you want better representation, talk about members of Congress, not presidential candidates.

Re:

[I am not a Bicycle]

LOL. I won't call the parent's attack "thinly disguised". It's linked right there on the user sig: sanders dot com. So you get at least some partisan honesty here. But you're correct in saying that Congress or parliaments matter more in countries not ruled by despotic Great Leaders. Any good or evil the current occupant of the White House does can easily be reversed by the next POTUS, not so with the Mickey Mouse acts that somehow gain bipartisan support.

I'm not partisan

[rsilvergun]

I'll call out anyone who's a corporate sell out. I hate Biden with a passion (largely because he manged to fool me until I started watching YouTube Channels like Secular Talk). And if Bernie turned his back on everything he stood for for 50+ years I'd throw him to the curb too.

What matters is policy. I don't care who gets us there, but if you turn your back on policy you turn your back on me and my country.

I wasn't trying to disguise it

[rsilvergun]

if I was Bernie's slogan wouldn't be in my sig. I thought I was being pretty clear.

And you'll notice I didn't mention Warren. That's because for all her faults regarding Healthcare she's rock solid on corporate regulation. Meanwhile Biden's from Delaware, if you don't understand why that matters do some Googling. You'll learn something valuable.

Re:

[Hylandr]

And totally no effing Bloomburg.

Everyone hates Bloomberg

[rsilvergun]

so he's not going anywhere. I still don't understand what he's doing. All I can figure is it really is just a vanity and publicity tour.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Here's the problem with what you said, by way of my telling you how I voted in 2016: I voted for Jill Stein because I couldn't trust Clinton or Trump. I'm sure I'm not alone. We see how that worked out now didn't we? If all the 3rd-party voters like me had just held their noses and voted for Clinton, we wouldn't be enduring Trump right now. No doubt Clinton would have brought her own baggage full of problems with her but it might not have been as bad as Trump has been. If you want to get rid of Trump this y

I don't think you could trust Jill Stein

[rsilvergun]

there are several uncomfortable pictures of her with the kind of world leaders you can't get near unless you've sold out.

And Hilary was and is a snake. I didn't vote Hilary for trust, I did it to blunt the damage.

For the love of Pete show up to your primary, drag your friends and vote Bernie. He just needs to win by a large enough margin they can't cheat him out of it. Trump's encouraging him thinking it'll be easy to beat a socialist (because that worked out great when Hilary encouraged Trump in 20

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Let me put this to you another way: I don't care WHO the Democratic candidate is, so long as EVERYONE IS BEHIND HIM OR HER! Otherwise we get 4 more years of Trump damage and destruction. WE HAVE TO GET HIM OUT OF OFFICE, ***NOW***!

You'll get the Bernie bros

[rsilvergun]

because we're highly politically engaged and well aware of the consequences of 4 more years of Trump.

But if a right wing "centrist" like Biden or Buttigieg gets the nod then the Independents (read:wishy washy) voters will stay home. They're not going to wait 3 hours in line in November cold (necessary in a Democrat leaning district) to vote for Hilary Clinton with man parts.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Then if you want to really make a difference and help get rid of Trump once and for all then what you should be doing is convincing the so-called 'independent' voters to hold their noses and vote for the Democrat frontrunner whether they really like it so much or not -- because it's still better than Trump.
Seriously, which is better: 4 more years of Trump, or 4-8 years of some Democrat? At least the latter of the two choices gives the country some time to heal, repair some of the damage that's been done,

Re:

[danbert8]

Maybe instead of encouraging independents to vote for your shit candidate, you should be encouraging Democratic primary voters to support a candidate that is actually more appealing than Trump. Should be pretty easy if Trump is as bad as you say he is...

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

You dumb ass, what part of 'not watering down the voter base' do you not understand? Or are you just another Trump supporter, or some foreign national, trying to confuse people and 'influence' our elections? STFU and GTFO.

Re:

[danbert8]

The margin of victory in every single state was greater than the total 3rd party votes. Even if everyone who voted for Stein or Johnson had switched and voted for Hillary, she still would have gotten the same number of electoral votes.

Nevermind that you don't pay attention to actual vote results, but your premise is still flawed. The people who deserve blame for Trump are Trump voters, not the voters that decided not to vote for Hillary. Hillary is to blame for not appealing to more voters and the Democrati

Re:Anittrust?

[DarkRookie2]

It would be nice to have another OS I could play games on.
Linux is getting better. WINE sometimes works. Proton is better but still can't do everything.
OSX can't play nearly as much as linux.

So until all the gaming companies release things (part, present, future) on all the OSes (I say ubuntu for the linux test unless there is another that is more popular) I am kinda stuck with them.
Console do not have nearly the game library that Windows has so those aren't really an option. Even a rPi can't emulate as many games as Windows.

Re:

[Xenx]

It's not even just games. There are tons of things that Windows users can take for granted that Linux just can't have or can't have easily. Expanded features on mice/keyboards, Dolby Atmos(I know it's possible, if set up correctly), 4k Netflix, etc. That stuff is only barely making it to MacOS, if event that.

Re:

[uncqual]

You obviously don't own a Tesla.

Re:

[torkus]

Forget anti-trust, this is simply anti-user. People in lofty, insulated offices making "informed" decisions for the great masses who obviously don't know better /s

MS is, once again, walking backwards on the path towards usability. The people who use bing, generally only do so because it defaulted to that and it's too complicated for them to change it back. If that's not obvious to anyone, consider that MS is so desperate to force that default change that they'll do so via a custom plugin for a browser th

Can't wait for Google to scream bloody murder

[Tinsoldier314]

The idea that you would install a plugin in a competitor product to divert it's behavior towards your own product is shocking and I hope the outcry is as hilarious as I'm hoping.

It's a shame

[DogDude]

It is certainly shocking! Can you imagine if Chome suggested that I use Google for a web browser? That would be similarly outrageous.

Re:

[screwthempaa]

There is a difference between a suggestion and forcing or are you being clueless on purpose?

Re:

[Sloan Kettering]

I think what you mean is if, when searching at Google, they recommended their product Google Chrome as a browser, in which case it would be normal and expected. If, however, while using Google Docs on Internet Explorer or Edge, Google installed an add-in that forced the search engine to change to Google, then you'd have an apples to apples comparison.

Coming soon in Chrome

[whoever57]

An update that will neuter this extension.

Re:Coming soon in Chrome

[AmiMoJo]

No need, Chrome disabled local forced install of add ons and extensions ages ago. They can put the files there but Chrome will ask if they want to enable it the first time.

Re:

[Jason Levine]

I wonder if Office 365 could detect whether or not the extension is enabled and refuse to run unless the user enables the extension.

Clippy pops up

"I see you're trying to use Chrome as your default browser without using the Office Force Bing Extension. Enable the Office Force Bing Extension before launching Office 365 again."

Re:

[complete loony]

Windows machines connected to a domain still support that feature.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

True, which is one of the reasons why Chrome is often preferred in corporate environments over Firefox. Chrome has great central management tools.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Hack it out of it manually. Or just say 'fuck Chrome' and install Firefox.

Re:

[drew_kime]

Hack it out of it manually. Or just say 'fuck Chrome' and install Firefox.

They've got you covered:

"Support for the Firefox web browser is planned for a later date. We will keep you informed about support for Firefox through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and this article," Redmond adds.

This should be interesting

[Chris453]

Maybe the next Chrome update can uninstall and block this malware automatically. Browser wars. Bring the popcorn

Wow

[the_skywise]

I thought we were past all this forced extension installation.
I don't even see what Microsoft is thinking here - nothing good can come from this for the company.
Even with their blatantly non-customer friendly action of adding ads to Wordpad they can at least point to revenue generation for a "free" app to recoup costs as some sort of rationale. But forcing a search engine change on a non-Microsoft browser is just ridiculously wrong.

Re:Wow

[Rob Y.]

Interesting that you mention the 'ads in Wordpad' thing in this context. Because it seems that Microsoft is attempting once again to use whatever monopoly power Windows still gives it to usurp Google's business model. Okay, Google doesn't have a Wordpad competitor. But what it does have is an advertising business placing targeting ads based on your search history. Well, Microsoft would like a similar business - and barring that, they'd be happy to simply make Google a lot less profitable. Bing search is their chosen mechanism - far be it for Microsoft to think up a new way of gathering info to build an ad business around; they're perfectly happy to copy someone else. Nobody's ever going to accuse Microsoft of originality.

Anyway, Bing has never taken off - despite repeated attempts to shove it down our throats. And Windows ain't (quite) the monopoly it once was. But Office pretty much still is. And Office 365 can run in Chrome on non-Windows platforms. So as Windows fades (slowly, too slowly) into irrelevance - largely due to competitive pressures facilitated by Google, well, you get the point...

Re:Wow

[Sarten-X]

Okay, Google doesn't have a Wordpad competitor...

Google Docs.

For anyone with a Gmail account, Google Docs is free (like Wordpad is free to anyone with a Windows OS), and offers all the editing capabilities of Wordpad, and then some.

Re:Wow

[twocows]

Docs really competes more with Word than Wordpad. Wordpad occupies a unique niche: it's an extremely lightweight (4 MB) word processor with basic rich text functionality that you can access without additional software or without even an internet connection on any computer running Windows, going back what, almost 30 years now? Maybe more?

I mentioned this on another post, but it feels like Wordpad doesn't really have any actual competitors. Everything's either a heavyweight full office suite-style word processor (Docs, Word, LibreOffice, arguably AbiWord) or a plaintext editor with extra functionality. I actually wish I knew of some decent Wordpad competitors. Most of my word processing needs are met by it and it's extremely fast and accessible from any Windows computer in the world, and it puts out RTF documents that can be opened by just about anything made in the past 30 years. Ironically it's one of my favorite pieces of software that Microsoft has ever made.

Re:

[shadowwynd]

Have you tried Jarte? It is free and based on the Wordpad engine. http://www.jarte.com/index.htm... [jarte.com]

Re:

[twocows]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!

Re:

[I am not a Bicycle]

So you're looking for an RTF editor? Google Docs can do that. Google Docs can't really compete with MS Word since its formatting is abysmal even when compared to the favorite whipping boy of MS Word fans, LibreOffice. I'd say the gap between Google Docs and LibreOffice is far greater than the gap between LibreOffice and MS Word. So if you want MS Word compatibility, either get the latest Word version or use LibreOffice.

Now if you're looking for the Rich Text functionality of the RTF format (how's that for r

Re:

[Oligonicella]

So you're looking for an RTF editor? Google Docs can do that. Google Docs can't really compete with MS Word since its formatting is abysmal

Not sure how you don't see that as contradictory. The entire point of an RTF editor is to let you see the editing results. If its formatting is abysmal, it's not a viable RTF editor.

Huh?

[twocows]

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the little yellow bar that comes down in Wordpad and advertises Office is a power play by Microsoft to try and use Windows to usurp Google search with Bing. Office hasn't been tied to Windows exclusively in quite some time nor has it been the only viable competitor in its market for at least a few years now (G Suite actually dominates several markets, most notably education).

I think the simpler and more likely explanation is that Microsoft would rather have peo

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Friend, Microsoft and so many other companies would just put you up against the wall, take your wallet, and directly drain your bank account if they thought they could get away with it legally-speaking, and then they'd take all your Very Much Personal Data from you and sell it off, and give you NOTHING. All that's holding them back is the tattered laws and law enforcement we've got left.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I thought we were past all this forced extension installation.

At what point were we ever?

Complete horseshit

[GeekBoy]

Guess I won't be using O365 ProPlus any time soon.

Re:

[hey!]

As if the name of the product weren't enough of a clue.

Re:

[wumbeer]

My company resells and services their products - a lot of that being ProPlus, so we want to see Microsoft succeed. But they have to know this pisses us off, right? This type of behavior makes it harder to sell Microsoft and contrary to what the linked article says, it does not add any value. This is similar to when they crammed MS Teams down our throats - at least this time I see the info ahead of time so I can put a GPO in place to stop this nonsense, before all the calls to us come in.

Re:

[GeekBoy]

There needs to be another anti-trust investigation wrt Teams and their behavior selling Azure through their enterprise agreements. It stinks to high heaven.

"Cadillac" spam

[Tablizer]

Premium users get hosed more than regular users? That sounds like an ass-backward business model. Usually one would pay premium to avoid crap-ware and tricks.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[StormReaver]

"Premium" users are more vested in Microsoft, so they make an easier target. The more you use Microsoft, the more of a target you become. That's true in many ways, but this is one.

Next Google update

[Njovich]

In other news Google has launched new updates of its products:
- Google Chrome will now redirect Bing to Google Search, Office.com to Gsuite, and set default file openings for Microsoft Office files to open in Google Docs.
- Google Chrome is unfortunately no longer compatible with Microsoft IIS hosted websites
- Android will no longer support Microsoft apps, due to malware having been spread on Microsoft Word in the 90's
- Google search will no longer return any Microsoft results
- Some malware has been found on

What will this plugin actually do?

[drew_kime]

Forget about whether this is a good idea, what will it even do? If you can install a plugin you can change a default. Why aren't they doing that? If you're telling people they can always change it back, what will the plugin do after that? Why is the plugin still around?

Re:

[samwichse]

Change it back to Microsoft's default every time Office "updates" automatically. So like, all the time.

And I will FORCE Microsoft to find a replacement..

[MikeDataLink]

And I will FORCE Microsoft to find a new customer to replace my business with.

Re:

[StormReaver]

And I will FORCE Microsoft to find a new customer to replace my business with.

Microsoft knows that if you've put up with them for this long, you'll accept any abuse.

OK... fine.

[irreverentdiscourse]

I'll just block bing.com on all of my firewalls then. Problem solved.

Another reason not to use Chrome?

[Sebby]

Besides being produced by a privacy rapist [slashdot.org], this kind of 'tug-of-war' about default search settings could be another reason to avoid Chrome (though I wonder if MS would try to do the same for Firefox?).

Re:

[GuB-42]

In order to become the default search engine on Firefox, Microsoft "just" needs to pay more than Google. I think they did for a short time.

Re:

[drew_kime]

Besides being produced by a privacy rapist [slashdot.org], this kind of 'tug-of-war' about default search settings could be another reason to avoid Chrome (though I wonder if MS would try to do the same for Firefox?).

They've got you covered:

"Support for the Firefox web browser is planned for a later date. We will keep you informed about support for Firefox through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and this article," Redmond adds.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Toolbars all over again

[xack]

Remember when every peice of freeware came with a toolbar for your browser? This is the return of it, but with paid software.

Re:

[PincushionMan]

Browser toolbars, OpenCandy, offerware (Gator/OfferCompanion), BHO, search engine helpers and so on is why Ninite [ninite.com] is a thing.

Once upon a time it was used to install Adobe products (Flash, Reader, etc...), but Ninite has removed those links from their site. Or maybe Adobe made them remove them. I'm told that there's a way to hex edit your Ninite executable files to restore that feature (assuming that you consider Adobe products 'features').

Dear Microsoft

[thegreatbob]

Stop messing around with users' settings. Just stop. Setting defaults on a new feature in Windows? That's fine. Altering existing settings/installing browser extensions in a third-party browser for no reason beyond self-promotion? That's unacceptable.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Use Windows Update? They regularly reset your preferences with system updates

Re:

[thegarbz]

Setting defaults on a new feature in Windows? That's fine.

You've hit an interesting grey area since this is a new feature that binds search to ProPlus, but only works on Bing and therefore for this new feature of Office 365 to work you have to change an existing default...

Well, Bing **is** actually better

[cruachan]

I swapped my search engine to Bing after the James Damore affair on all my devices and actually I now quite strongly prefer it because..
1. There's far less advertising. It's not uncommon for a Google search result for something sellable to have over half a page of placed ads at the top. There's far less on Bing
2. The image search results are just plain better
3. Bing results for anything political/social are just far less weird
4. And actual search results are at least as good as Google
5. And Microsoft reward

Hilarious

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

The story right before this is titled, "Microsoft's CEO Looks To a Future Beyond Windows, iOS, and Android "

So I guess that future depends on forcing people to use their shit products (like Bing) whether they want to or not.

Retaliation by google?

[sinij]

I don't know what Microsoft is thinking. Google searches for Microsoft Office can be also be redirected elsewhere.

Killing Windows - finally

[bradley13]

On the positive side, Microsoft does seem to be doing whatever they can, to convince people to abandon Windows. Ads. Re-installation of deleted crapware with every update. Continual phoning home, combined with resetting privacy preferences with updates. And now, changing preferences even in non-Microsoft software.

The unfortunate thing is that Apple is (and will continue to be) the big winner here. We might hope for Linux, but - even though I've used Linux for years - the truth is that Linux *still* isn't re

Re:

[PPH]

the truth is that Linux *still* isn't ready for the mass market

And not everyone needs a Porsche. Enjoy your bus ride.

Re:

[roc97007]

I disagree on a couple of points -- first, I don't see how Apple is that much of a winner. To run OSX you're confined to only Apple hardware, which tend to be overly expensive appliances designed to be forklift-replaced every couple of years. Or go through the process of breaking OSX so it runs on standard hardware.

Moreover, (as a mac user at work and Mint user at home) there tends to be just as many incompatibilities between Apple and the rest of the world as there are Mint and the rest of the world, mos

BS!!!

[burnanator]

Who's going to pay companies and sys-admins for the wasted time shutting this @#$% extension off after they get tons of calls from their users saying "my google search looks weird"?? Grrrrrrr....

Re:

[The-Ixian]

You should already be using GP to manage Chrome and whitelisting extensions. That way any user can't just install whatever extension they want.

Microsoft can certainly *try* to install a Bing extension for my users.... but they will fail.

Wow, Bing still exists?

[roc97007]

Wow, I haven't had to think about Bing in a long while. Typically the only time I see it is in IE or Edge on a brand new system before I download and install an alternate browser that uses Google. We're saying that if I install Chrome on windows it'll default to Bing? Sucks to be Chrome, then.

Outrageous

[jim.shilliday]

I manage two mid-sized nonprofit O365 accounts. The first three words of my most recent support ticket: "HOW DARE YOU!!??" Please do the same asap thx. They'll back down.

Ever the recidivist

[Tough Love]

Microsoft, ever the scofflaw recidivist. Microsoft;s corporate DNA has not changed a bit, except for no longer being the most powerful technology corporation. Microsoft would do even more evil if it could.

Microsoft - Fuck your customers!

[Rainwulf]

What are they going to do? Leave?

Microsoft's EULA:

1. We reserve the right to do what the fuck we want.

2. You are free to not use our products.

3. We have aggresively prevented anyone from ever creating alternative products.

4. fuck you.

Bing sucks

[screwthempaa]

No one wants it, they should give up. Like everything else they do they are late to the party and are incompetent.