What you need to know
- Several Google services show pop-ups within the new Microsoft Edge to try to get people to switch to Google Chrome.
- Google docs, Google's search page, Google News, and Google Translate show prompts to switch to Chrome.
- Google also shows pop-ups in the Chrome web store to try to get people to switch to Chrome.
Google continues to try to make people switch away from the new Microsoft Edge. This time, pop-ups were spotted by MSPU within several Google services that prompt people to switch to Google Chrome. Google Docs, Google's search page, Google News, and Google Translate all show prompts to switch to Google Chrome.
Google's search page reads, "Switch to Chrome. Hide annoying ads and protect against malware on the web." Google docs states, "to use docs offline upgrade to Chrome."
Last week, people spotted warnings on the Chrome web store telling people to switch to Google Chrome to "use extensions securely."
Some of these prompts caused people to question Google's sincerity. Google's prompt in the Chrome web store doesn't link to any websites or studies that show that Chrome extensions run less securely on the new Microsoft Edge. Similarly, the prompt on Google's search page doesn't offer any evidence that Chrome is better at hiding ads or protecting PCs against malware.
Notably, MSPU points out that these pop-ups don't appear within any other Chromium-powered browsers such as Opera. That indicates that Google is spending time and effort to specifically dissuade people from using the new Microsoft Edge, and not just trying to get people to use Chrome over any other Chromium browser.
Microsoft and Google have used pop-ups and prompts in the past to similar effect. If you search for Google Chrome within Bing, the search engine suggests Microsoft Edge. It seems that these pop-up battles will continue going forward.
