this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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Microsoft was caught testing way too many ads on its Bing Search results page. I saw 9 ads and only two organic/free listings on the page for a query on [garage door repair].

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[–] raptir@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago

Two of the ads are for the same company, and that company is also one of the two organic results.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 2 points 5 hours ago

Way to confuse adblock users

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 19 points 10 hours ago

Gross but also... kinda curious from an A/B testing perspective to know when the user drop off happens. Kind of like, what's the pain threshold before someone stops using shitty software. The answer really should be zero but the average user... ugh, it's probably fucking 8 or 9 and we should be ashamed.

Too bad is Bing so the sample size is too small for any meaningful results.

[–] singletona@lemmy.world 54 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Tea@programming.dev 34 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Next up they might test making the whole first page for ads, and the pages after that for search results.

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 30 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Hell, why even have organic search results at all? Just rank results by how much each site owner is willing to ~~bribe~~ pay. A protection racket for the 21st century.

"That's a nice website you've got there. It'd be a shame if it got no visitors."

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Good idea, you now quality to mod r/anarchocapitapism

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

While I don't mind laissez-faire in principle, that not my favorite anarcho-flavor and I don't wanna :)

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I am empathetic to wanting to be left alone. I am disturbed by their desire to tear down systems that protect others out of some a historic notion that we would be better off with out them

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

well you'd think at some point people would stop using their bullshit search engine.

[–] Enelop@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

This is what Google and Amazon already do, why are they singling out Bing?

Use an advertisement blocker on either site and the entire experience seems foreign.

[–] vodkasolution@feddit.it 13 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Do people actually use Bing??? Apart from the ms reward

[–] superkret@feddit.org 18 points 12 hours ago

I use its image search to study human anatomy.

[–] Pamasich@kbin.earth 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's a lot better nowadays than Google, so I do, yeah.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

duckduckgo is mostly based on bing results so you could try that too.

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 10 points 12 hours ago

What a waste of bandwidth, energy and time.

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

i feel bad for all the 10 bing users

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 9 hours ago

Satya the creep testing boundaries