Jokingly, I may have thought a way for the government to deincentivize Google Search without loosing much money: adding mandatory descriptions in the menu where users choose search engines.
Google: Owned by a surveillance advertising network and monopolist
Bing: Owned by a surveillance advertising network and monopolist
DDG: Proxies Bing
Startpage: Proxies Google and Bing
Brave: Nah, I’mma do my own thing
This is interesting because Bing does (did? I don’t keep up with Bing) literally bribe users on a per-search basis and still nobody uses Bing. Maybe a third-party (like the government) doing the bribing makes a difference in people’s mind and doesn’t seem as desperate as Bing Rewards.
I did not know that Bing Rewards existed, so it may just be a matter of peopld not knowing that it did, compared to the US government making a big show by determining the fate of the digital landscape.
Yes using bing can give you MS points used to purchase gamepass and other various items from MS rewards. I have tried it but found I did not like the reults from using it.
This test also shows us the “people like familiar” habits most of us have. When you are used to something looking and working a specific way, something new feels foreign and inferior compared to what you know. We also know what comes pre-installed on your OS has a large influence (remember Internet Explorer?).
I think this is also one of the reasons MS edge became a bit more popular as some people couldn’t be bothered installing a web browser when there was one already available.