At least Windows a) only does this when on battery power, b) for a valid reason, and c) hides it in the offscreen notification area.

Every time I use Google Search in Edge a prominent pop-up window asks me to switch browsers. It's extremely frustrating!

For a valid reason?

If Edge uses ~36% less power then yes, it's a valid tip. MS are obviously also angling for more Edge users, but it does legitimately increase battery life.

I mean, as the article points out, I can't help but feel Google brought this one on themselves with browser ads on the google homepage...

not to forget keeps bugging me to make google my default search engine. i mean if my default was set to ask.com maybe, if i set my default to ddg, it was probably on purpose..

and on that note, why/how are they able to detect that google isnt my default search anyway?

I've seen that message even when google is my default search engine. So I think it might just be something that shows up for everyone. I was using firefox though, perhaps Chrome + Default google will get rid of the message.

Which appear even if you're using Chrome....sigh.