this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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Microsoft has launched a new rewards program offering Chrome users "real cash value" points to switch to Edge browser[^1]. When users search for "Chrome" on Bing, they receive a prompt offering 1,300 Microsoft Rewards points that can be exchanged for gift cards, including on Amazon[^1].

The Browser Choice Alliance, representing Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi, criticizes this as Microsoft's latest tactic to manipulate browser choice, following earlier practices like "forced resets, misleading prompts, and hidden settings"[^1].

The market context shows why Microsoft is pursuing this strategy - Edge holds less than 9% market share compared to Chrome's 78%[^1]. The rewards program appears targeted specifically at Chrome users, with Windows Latest noting "we're not seeing ads for other browsers, such as Opera, Firefox or Brave"[^1].

[^1]: Forbes - Microsoft Offers Chrome Users 'Real Cash' Rewards To Change Browser

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Quick google search tells me that is about a buck fifty.

Maybe if they paid me that for every minute I use their browser, I would give in.

[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Use a better search, googol sucks and was never any good.

[–] Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ok google sucks and people should not use it, but claiming it was never any good is just rewriting history because you dont like the present

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There’s a reason why Google became one of the most valuable companies in the world. They USED to be a decent company with a decent product. But that has long since passed.

[–] Lockpro@mstdn.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

@aeternum @technology Remember “don’t be evil” ? I’m thinking that’s not the company slogan anymore.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I do indeed. Many years ago, I loved google. I used all their products and everything was good. gmail was a pioneer. 1GB of storage while the other email providers were providing 10-20MB. I was in the beta for gmail, and i adored it. I had it for many years. Then enshittification happened, and that all changed. Fuck google so hard.

[–] Lockpro@mstdn.social 1 points 1 week ago

@aeternum I’m a workspace user and after the news the other day, about them helping ICE with facial recognition, I want out so bad. . . Looking for alternatives, and I’m a die hard Mac user, so 365 is a hard pass.

From the news. . . “This includes hosting a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants and removing community-developed apps that alerted people to ICE activity. “

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 week ago (5 children)

When I read things like this, I struggle to understand the economic logic behind it.

How much money does Microsoft really expect to get from more people using Edge instead of Chrome? I mean, both of them are provided free of charge anyway. Does the control over the default search engine or the advertising technology or something like that really bring them more money than these "rewards" cost?

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 23 points 1 week ago

Because they can rob more data from you, make shareholders more happy and push in your throat more ads

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago

It's about profiling the user, logging his activities and searches, certainly bring more money than these "rewards".

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

It all seems even more ridiculous when you realize all of these browsers are just flavors of chrome and MS is pretending it doesn't gather enough data from windows 11 telemetry.

[–] belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org 7 points 1 week ago

They want your tracking data for AI, so bad. Also they added payments into the browser itself and they really really want you to use that.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Can someone take the points and switch back 😄

[–] kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh boy, Points. I certainly enjoy the "real cash value" of Points. If only I were paid in Points instead of Money

[–] HairyHarry@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

10 Create new user

20 set edge as default

30 profit

40 goto 10

run

[–] DetachablePianist@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

your code looks really basic

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

10 GoSub CreateNewUser

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I love that the browser choice alliance is made up of a single browser and they're removed about MS trying to push another flavor of chromium on us. This whole situation is a circle jerk.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Not only Chromiums in this alliance, also Geckos there.

https://vivaldi.com/blog/browser-choice-alliance-launch/

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

That sounds like a scam. lmao

they need data to train their AI models

[–] lillardfair@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They got me at work. Sharepoint, which we've transitioned to for everything, fights you tooth and nail every time you try to use it with another browser. I fought edge out of spite for about a year, but I'm tired dog. Wish they'd pay me instead of berating me to death.

[–] benagain@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

I wish my workplace was using Sharepoint... I mean we technically are.

Our intranet homepage now says, "Please access quicklinks through Microsoft Teams under Teams -> All Staff -> General" - so you click on that link, it opens Microsoft Teams, you navigate to the channel where the 'quicklinks' tab is, you click on the 'quicklinks' tab, it says the page is not supported in Microsoft Teams, you click on the tab and open the link in Edge and LOW AND BEHOLD, you get a Sharepoint page with the 'quicklinks'. At least I'll never die of hypothermia because this stuff keeps my blood boiling. It's soooo stupid.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

fuck it, they can fight amongst themselves.