Not saying this as anti-Google, pro-Microsoft or pro/anti anyone, merely agreeing with you that the "% of {area|time|...} search" means absolutely nothing.
Especially in the context that matters for potential Bing customers, aka ads buyers: I don't care about how many search there are, I care about how many people can see my ad.
Of course no big search entity has any interest of giving those "real search" numbers, neither the front runner nor the underdog.
NO!! I don't expect to be searching Google when I type something into the browser address bar. That is what the search bar is for.
Keyboard shortcut? Privacy concerns?
Honestly curious because I feel the search bar has long since been made redundant. The only people I see using it in the wild is my parents/their friends.
I don't understand why people speak for the whole population. I'm sure MS runs Analytics for these and would've killed it off if "no one" wants it.
Microsoft users do not want it.
Microsoft customers want it.
In case it's not obvious, when Windows was given away for free, the users were no longer customers, and transitioned to become "product".
Anyway, wether those automatic searches will display the ads or not is a different issue. Many will.
It can does offer suggestions from the address bar, but only after you click "yes I want this". Same for the search bar.
What you say sounds like the search bar does send keypresses and like the address bar can't (both are incorrect).
Normal address bar suggestions come from local data stores, not from a search provider. (And I tough both suggestions were enabled by default, but well, it's been many years since I last configured a fresh Firefox install.)
iirc mac os also does this with the cmd+space launcher. I think maybe even gnomes launcher does this as well.
This often happens to me when I'm exploring the edges of what Siri can do (which is much less than Alexa or Google's assistant). It also happens when Siri mis-hears me and can't properly route the search query to weather, sports, or whatever handler would have been appropriate.
And note that while it is possible to change Safari's default search engine, it is not possible to make these Siri searches run on anything other than Bing. I'm sure Apple is being paid handsomely (and keeping some valuable data out of Google's hands).
Not a Windows 10 introduction, although that one tends to find any excuse it can to call home.
The free upgrade was to get people off of 7 and 8. Windows 7 was an aging product that people were reluctant to give up, and Windows 8 was a disaster that was accelerating the erosion of Windows and doing damage to a brand worth tens of billions of dollars. Windows 8 was acting as a product generation blockade, most 7 users didn't want to touch it, and people who bought it had a poor experience. Bing had nothing to do with the free upgrade at all.
b.) I don't like or use that feature
c.) But aren't that searches?
But what matters money wise for their share holders, for you as a potential customer (ad buyer), ... is not how many search they take on, it's how many times your ads can be seen. And in that context, those aren't worth anything.
(of course that is until they try to embed ads there, but since even Google hasn't found a way yet I don't see Microsoft taking the first step)
(If you have a Windows computer with default privacy settings, press the Start key; type a few letters. You just "searched" Bing)