Microsoft’s Edge has started rolling out address bar ads when developer browser users are on Google’s Bard site that encourages users to try their Bing AI chatbot instead.
According(Opens in a new window) to developer and Twitter user Vitor de Lucca, a new developer version of Edge now displays an ad for Bing next to the Google Bard URL. It is also showing up on the current Mac (version 114.0.1807.1) and PC versions of Microsoft Edge developer.
As The Verge notes(Opens in a new window), anyone that goes onto bard.google.com while using Edge will spot a new animated slide that reads “compare answers with the AI-powered new Bing in the upper-right corner of the address bar. The text then slides to the right before revealing a Bing icon, which once clicked, launches Microsoft Edge’s new split view which allows users to compare Bing AI answers with Google’s Bard.
According to Neowin(Opens in a new window), the banner was also spotted in Microsoft Edge Canary Channel.
Tweet(Opens in a new window)
The Bing AI ad isn’t exactly new territory for Microsoft. For years, Bing users searching for Chrome have received a banner at the top of the results promoting Edge. That banner reads: “Microsoft Edge is powered by the same open source technology as Google Chrome, providing best in class web and extension compatibility.”
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In February this year, Microsoft briefly took its ads even further by injecting two ads on the Chrome website(Opens in a new window) before swiftly removing them. The first was a tiny pop-up telling users to stick with Edge while the second full-size advertisement appeared when users start downloading Chrome.
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