Microsoft would use so-called dark patterns to convince users to use its own Edge browser, Mozilla claims.

Firefox developer Mozilla accuses Microsoft of so-called dark patterns use. Through such misleading design elements, Microsoft would be promoting its own Edge browser to unsuspecting users. Dark patterns are visual design decisions that steer users in a certain direction without necessarily meaning to.

illusion

Mozilla ordered an investigation into Microsoft’s practices and cited several techniques that the browser maker considers questionable.

• When you navigate to the Chrome download page, Microsoft itself inserts advertising for its Edge browser at the top of that page. Google does not provide Microsoft with advertising space there, but Microsoft can add the advertising itself to the site via Edge.
• If you search for an alternative browser via Bing, Microsoft will again show advertisements for Edge itself. These ads look different than other ads. They would exude more legitimacy because they use the Windows design language.
• If you want to set a different default browser via the settings, you will be faced with additional effort. Finally, not all file types change, so Edge remains the default browser in many cases.

We’ve come across the first advertising bar before, but we can’t currently reproduce the first two claims ourselves via Edge. Very often we are faced with a dialog box asking us to enable the “recommended settings” for Edge. If you click OK too quickly, your default search engine will change back to Bing.

Mozilla finds that Microsoft is abusing its trusted position as an operating system provider to push people toward its own products. Anyone who sees a notification in Windows that uses the Windows design language may be more inclined to trust it. It is such subtle techniques that fall under the term dark patterns because they unduly influence a user’s free choice.

Multiple culprits

Mozilla, in turn, sees Firefox’s market share declining. The company regularly complains about the forced dominance of the big companies. Although these complaints serve self-interest, they do contain a grain of truth. Microsoft likes to push its own products on users and Google is guilty too. For example, Edge informs you that Chrome is a better browser when you browse to a Google service, even though Edge and Chrome are based on the same Chromium codebase and therefore there is no significant difference in functionality.