M*crosoft's search engine is borderline unusable - eviltoast

It’s impressive how duckduckgo manages to be so much better than bing despite being a frontend for bing

  • arglebargle@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Not to defend Bing in anyway, but I typed logitech unifying software and the first result is the download page on logitechs site.

    I am not doubting you, but why is it so different for me? I see non of the ??? section, no ads, just a link at the top like you would expect.

    What are you using or doing different?

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      3 months ago

      Do you have uBlock or some similar ad blocker installed?

      EDIT: I went and looked myself. I do have an ad-blocker installed. I don’t see the ad. But I do see more noise than OP (desktop, Firefox):

      • There’s a set of steps at the top left telling me to download and install the software, which is what OP was complaining about.

      • At the top right, there’s a large, blue button with a link that guesses incorrectly that I want to know about Logitech Unifying Receiver Pairing, and just sends me to another Bing search.

      • Beneath that, there are a list of several questions that Microsoft incorrectly thinks I might be wanting to task and their answers.

      • Then there are two “Explore more” links linking me to pages describing how to pair with the software. One appears to link to “logi.com” with apparently is a Logitech business support page that links to the software, albeit only the Mac version, which I’d guess isn’t what OP wanted.

      • Back on the left, I have what appears to be an AI spam question-answer site at thewindowsclub.com and another page on “how to unify” at robots.net.

      • Beneath that, I have a link to the Logitech download section. So it’s in my top results and on my laptop, visible on the first screen of results, though beneath some not-really-desirable stuff.

    • renzev@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      The screenshot is from Microsoft Edge running in Windows 10 (virtual machine) with no/little browsing history and no account connected. I’m hypothesizing here, but maybe these are the reasons:

      • You don’t see the ??? section because you’re not on Edge. Bing AI only works on edge (it checks your user agent)
      • You don’t see the ad because you have an adblocker
      • arglebargle@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Just tried it in Edge, with no ad block.

        The first link was what I was searching for. None of that extra stuff showed up. The ad (for something unrelated) was in a column in the right.

        There is no account associated, little browsing history. This machine was completely wiped 2 weeks ago.

        I think the difference is, I am not in the US.