Silicon Valley has a huge problem with user consent and respecting “no” from users. The whole industry feels like a guy at a club asking people “Hey, you should date me. Allow? [Yes | Ask Again in 5 Minutes]”

Reminds me of the time when discussing some feature changes with an UX designer and I said something along the lines of "well, going against users wants/wishes can't be good UX" and they basically replied "but of course it can :)"

You really can’t see a difference between

> “you don't need to download a new browser, we recommend Edge”

> “to protect your pc we recommend only running ms verified apps, use Edge”

And

> “try safari, it’s energy efficient”

If not, look a bit harder.

No I don't. They're both advertisements. One happens only at install. The other when you use a competitors program. Both are despicable behaviors from an OS. It's like asking whether I prefer dog or cat turds on my carpet. They're both turds.

That’s reductionist to the point of stupidity. They are also both words, so I guess there’s no difference between them and this comment?

Except words have meaning, and the differences between these meanings are important.

One set of words is telling you that you are not safe unless you use this browser. It’s implying you’re making a mistake by using Firefox, and in both cases it’s saying “the people who make your computer are telling you to use this thing”. Non technical people are easily fooled by this. It’s scary.

The other one is saying “hey, Safari exists” in the corner of your screen.

There’s a big difference between these two.

There is no difference. In both cases someone is pushing their opinions or interest into your view. That's advertising, plain and simple. The text of the ad doesn't change that. Apple may not have the advertising bug as bad as Microsoft, but the are both reprehensible. I can't see why anyone would voluntarily use either one of them.

Those are different marketing techniques with the same goal of increasing browser market share.

TBH, I’ve maybe seen it once.