Since its release, one of the main limitations of the Bing chatbot was that it could only be used from Microsoft Edge. And yes, it’s true that extensions for other browsers appeared quickly to work around this limitation, but none of them are official, so Microsoft’s official position is that its chatbot can only be used in conjunction with its web browser, which might have made sense a few months ago.

I think it might make sense because with Bard’s actual debut and a lot of users interested in the new Bing, this strategy could serve not only to improve the numbers of Bing, but also Microsoft Edge. So those from Redmond scored two to one, making a real impact on their user shares in both markets. Of course, the positions in the table have not changed, but any increase, however small, if it can be consolidated, is a small achievement.

However, everything changed with the celebration of Google I/O 2023, the moment that Google chose to open access to Bard to all users who are interested in using it, albeit with certain geographical restrictions, such as the European Union. A restriction that was finally removed a few weeks ago Google’s chatbot is now available to virtually everyone (with the surprising exception of Canada, of course). And all the while, Bard was accessible from any browser. So currently Google’s chatbot reach is much higher than Microsoft’s because Chrome’s market share is much higher than Edge’s.

Well, it looks like they’re starting to get their hands on the twist in Redmond… but not much. As we can read in 9to5Google, Microsoft already allows access to Bing from Google Chrome. So it seems that since the end of last week, some users have verified that they already have access to the Microsoft chatbot from the Google browser, although this option is not yet available to everyone, so we are waiting for either a test or a gradual deployment.

Microsoft has imposed, yes, some pretty important restrictions for these users. First, the extension of conversations was limited to five interactions, compared to the 20 that are allowed when accessing from Edge. and on the other hand, the maximum length of challenges will be 2,000 characters, compared to the 4,000 that are allowed when using Microsoft’s browser. So we find ourselves with a well-remembered version, and it’s hard to believe, if we’re honest, that these limitations are related to the capabilities of the browsers.

I didn’t hesitate to classify Microsoft’s numerous successes with Bing as such, but in this case I think they are making a mistake in Redmond, With these limitations, Chrome users can opt for Bard now that it’s practically universally accessible.