Microsoft is no stranger to the world of nagging ads and is famous for its aggressive approach to keep its Windows users glued to the Edge browser. This time too it is no different.
The Redmond giant is apparently pushing full-screen ads on the Chrome website to persuade its Windows users to stay on the Edge browser and not make a switch to Chrome or other browsers.
In order to persuade Windows users against making the switch, Microsoft has started displaying two ads in the browser when they attempt to install Chrome using the Edge Canary version.
The first ad (a tiny one) pops up on the screen when the Chrome website loads, while the second ad (a gigantic full-size banner) appears on the screen once the download starts.
Microsoft even goes on to play a game of words by displaying a banner that reads, “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft.”
While there are a variety of well-known players in the web browser space, such as Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Firefox, Google Chrome continues to remain the most popular and widely-used desktop web browser in the world.
According to the latest Statcounter GlobalStats data, Google Chrome held 65.40% of the browser market share in the world as of January 2023, while Microsoft Edge got only 4.46%.
Looking at the stats, it seems only fair and justified for Microsoft to try and opt for aggressive promotion of the Edge browser to increase the user base.
However, what is not justified is the act of promoting ads of Edge browser on other websites (in this case Google Chrome) to lure more users.