Even though Microsoft attempts to focus on an artificial intelligence (AI) conversation that also includes the Edge web browser, industry bodies and researchers are calling out the tech company for continually coercive and intrusive tactics to make a case for Edge. The Browser Choice Alliance, and Mozilla Research, have again highlighted Microsoft’s attempts to engineer an illusion of choice, on millions of Windows PCs.
Mozilla Research, earlier this week, released the latest edition of the Over The Edge 2.0 report, which details how Microsoft’s design tactics compromise free browser choice. Researchers Dr. Harry Brignull and Cennydd Bowles put together the findings after monitoring Microsoft’s deceptive tactics to drive users towards the Edge browser on Windows PC. The conclusion they draw is simple—“Microsoft continues to steer users towards Edge across Windows, Edge, Bing, and now Copilot through deceptive practices that make it difficult for users to download, set as default, and continue using alternative browsers.”
Industry advocacy body Browser Choice Alliance tells HT that the research sheds light on a significant issue. Mozilla is not a BCA member—Vivaldi, Opera, Wavebox, Browserworks, Midori and Google’s Chrome are members.
“We applaud the research team for once again shining a spotlight on practices that distort competition and limit user choice. The researchers’ findings in “Over the Edge 2.0” reveal how Microsoft continues to use manipulative tactics to push users toward Edge, limiting users’ ability to choose and run their chosen browser. The report demonstrates how Microsoft deploys harmful patterns against users on Windows 11 devices at a global scale,” a BCA spokesperson tells HT.
The scale of the problem, that BCA is referencing, looks something like this: There are an estimated 1.4 billion active Windows devices globally. While Microsoft avoids sharing specifics, CEO Satya Nadella in an earnings call in January mentioned, “Windows reached a big milestone, 1 billion Windows 11 users.”
“We call on Microsoft to respect its users and stop using the Windows ecosystem to steer users toward its own browser in ways that restrict user choice, undermine web freedom, and unfairly tilt the playing field away from fair competition and innovation,” the BCA spokesperson adds.
According to the latest numbers from research firm Statcounter’s browser market share report, Google Chrome remains the undisputed leader among web browsers, with a 69.65% share at the end of June. The trajectory is clear too—up from 66.7% in March. Apple’s Safari is second at 15.31%.
Microsoft Edge, despite all of Windows’ contours to reduce choice across millions of Windows computing devices, follows with 5.21% share.
Last month, in a letter to Nadella, the BCA had called for Microsoft to respect users’ freedom of choice, and not attempt to stifle competition.
“That principle unites the Browser Choice Alliance in advancing a digital world where PC users control their own online experience, can choose their preferred browser without manipulation or interference, trust their preferences will be honoured, and participate in a marketplace where browsers compete on merit,” the letter mentioned.
The findings of Mozilla Researchers and the BCA’s letter to Nadella, point to similar tactics that Microsoft uses. These include Microsoft injecting banner directly into the Chrome browser urging users to switch to Edge instead, Windows Search and Widgets continually ignoring users’ default browser choices and opening links in Edge, Windows Backup unable to preserved browser preferences when users migrate from Windows 10 to Windows 11, and ignoring user choice of default browser for links in Teams and Outlook apps.
The Mozilla researchers, who analysed practices across Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs in four of Microsoft’s most important markets, that is US, India, UK and Germany, note that the situation is a little better in latter, since it is part of the European Economic Area dictated by the Digital Markets Act. They call it a “fairer user experience” for browser choice compared with other regions.
What the researchers are referencing is the DMA’s regulation of Microsoft as a gatekeeper for the Windows operating system, and not specifically Edge. In November 2023, Microsoft’s Rima Alaily, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, and Nanna-Louise Linde, Vice President European Government Affairs confirmed some changes and said that “these changes also include ending recommendations in various Windows experiences to set Edge as the default browser for EEA users, including during the configuration process when users initially set up or update Windows.”
However, unlike Google or Apple, Microsoft did not implement a dedicated, full-screen “browser choice ballot” on Windows because the European Commission ruled that the Edge browser itself did not have a high enough market share to be individually designated as a gatekeeper service.
“Within the EEA, Microsoft has dropped a number of the harmful patterns documented in our original report — a change the researchers attribute to regulatory pressure, not to a genuine shift in Microsoft’s approach. The Digital Markets Act has had a measurable effect, but a narrow one: several harmful patterns persist even in the EEA, and users in the US, India, and to a lesser extent the UK remain exposed to the broadest set of tactics. Where compliance ends at the border, so does respect for user choice,” Mozilla researchers say.
Google had, in early 2020, started to implement a screen giving users the choice to choose search engines when setting up an Android device following an antitrust penalty by the European Commission—and subsequently extended that to most other geographies, including India.
The collective call is for Microsoft to give users the choice, including preloading web browser alternatives to Edge to make switching decisions easier, and end was BCA calls “dark patterns” that hamper users in effectively using other browsers including pushing banners prompts.
