ChatGPT is not special.
Any of these companies can develop LLMs that are on par with ChatGPT.
All (well, most) of this unwanted functionality can be disabled via Group Policy (and MDM for non-AD computers?) but only businesses with competent/knowledgeable IT people can do that - for everyone else it’s just going to push users away.
Microsoft (and Edge, Windows and Bing) so desperately wants to be loved by users - that’s how you maintain market-share, but they can’t stop self-sabotaging everything with the most asinine things like above (…and the Windows 11 Start Menu). I don’t understand it - and I used to work at Microsoft![4]
[1]: https://www.howtogeek.com/769820/microsoft-edge-gets-yet-ano...
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/rewards/edge-bonus
[3]: https://www.howtogeek.com/769427/microsoft-edge-wants-to-giv...
[4]: granted, I was in DevDiv, where the only objection I had to the products’ direction was the colour scheme - my friends in OSG (Windows) and Bing had lots of horror stories of orders to implement dumb ideas coming from org heads - rarely was it actual user demand. Arguably what makes Apple a standout is their internal propensity to say “no” - Microsoft needs that.
I think they're already trying to do this. If you open up Edge and it's signed into an MS365 account you get a bunch of content for your tenant.
It's also the reason I quit using Edge after being a fairly early adopter. Microsoft just can't stop adding stuff. What used to be a nice clean alternative to Chrome with the convenience of always being logged in to my MS account for sync has become a bloated piece of trash that can't even reliably share a tab to another device.
It's really the constant bombardment of notifications and distractions that are trying to get me to use features that don't belong in a browser that I hate.
That simply doesn’t work - people use O365 at work and GSuite at home.
Man, I really don't want another IE. I was around back then, it was miserable.
Let's see.
Bing market share in the US = <7% (6.7% this year).
Edge market share in the US = <5% (it's only 5% for desktops, and >50% of internet traffic comes from phones).
Even if they get 100% of Google searches to go to Bing (which they'll be lucky if they even get to 50% on their platforms) - it will hardly do nothing.
The rate at which Edge is becoming irrelevant as people transition traffic to laptops (more likely Macs these days) or phones (0% MSFT) - is likely going to be larger than what Microsoft can chip away via Edge.
If they can chip away any meaningful traffic (I doubt it) - it will be a MUCH bigger threat if Apple does this. And you can bet it's coming down the pike in a year or two if not sooner. But I'm skeptical this AI search is going to be more than a fad, and I think the queries people like to ask AI search will be new types of searches (i.e. creating a new market, not taking away from the existing).