Get # Microsoft's Bold Strategy: Bing for a Healthier PC

If you were asked who’s leading the way in new technology, you might start with a company like Microsoft. Its leadership earns it respect, and the immense resources of a multibillion corporation allow it to be slightly more brazen than some smaller, scrappier upstarts. But it’s also the way that Microsoft tries to sell its wares that catches our attention. The latest proposal coming from Redmond puts forward an apparently ludicrous claim: that using Bing as your default search engine will make you healthier. Let’s unpack what they’re asserting, and examine what Microsoft’s pitch means for you and your computer, for better or for worse.

The Power of Bing in MICROSOFT's Ecosystem

As seen in the screen capture above – excerpted from Microsoft’s PC Manager application – Bing is held up as the preferable default search engine, lest your computer run at less than maximum efficiency. Changing default search engines to Bing, Microsoft’s suggestion attests, can make your PC ‘sure, fast and efficient’. Curiosity and skepticism have understandably greeted Microsoft’s assertion, especially given the dubious relevance of the default search engine setting to a computer’s performance or security.

A Step Too Far or Genius Marketing?

It is no coincidence that Microsoft’s big tip for PC health is to switch to Bing – the company’s search engine. And so, the more (we imagine) that the PC Manager’s nudge to try Bing spreads, so do questions about the politics of consumer choice and corporate agenda. Is this just brilliant marketing by a company squeezing every last drop of choice from consumers to help boost the numbers going to Bing? Or is there a kernel of substance to Microsoft’s claims?

Beneficial or Balderdash?

Whether or not Bing actually helps optimise PC performance for users, Microsoft’s push does represent a larger trend of tech companies promoting so-called ecosystems that offer a smoother experience if you stay within the confines of that company’s services and apps. Microsoft isn’t the only company promoting such narratives.

A Look at the Competition

This Microsoft tactic in particular reminds me of other tactics deployed across the tech industry: Google nudging Chrome users to Chrome, Apple’s ecosystem pushing Safari users to Safari, numerous companies competing for the most important default software space. In 2023, Microsoft overcame the shakeup, and its Bing filled the last gap. This kind of corporate competition is a cross-industry occurrence, with each step further locking users into their own ecosystem.

Bridging Bing and PC Health

That there might be a correlation between using Bing and keeping your PC healthy might not be obvious to all users, but as a bold surrender to scientific enquiry, Microsoft’s willingness to ‘challenge conventional tech wisdom’ is a refreshing reminder of the firm’s risk-taking tradition, one that once inspired real innovation, not just gimmicky marketing. It’s not yet clear whether straying from Google’s search engine will dramatically improve PC health – but, then again, maybe true innovation never is.

Understanding Microsoft

Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched Microsoft in 1975, as a tiny software start-up. Since then the company has become a tech colossus, known for its Windows operating system, Office suite and, more recently, its Azure cloud services. Its attempt to get people to install Bing to make their PC healthier is just one in a long line of efforts to stitch together and promote its full ecosystem of products and services.

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Microsoft’s suggestion to change to Bing to ‘keep your PC healthy’ might sound cynical to some, but it is only the most recent example of a prevailing across-the-board trend in Big Tech’s practice of suggesting in-house services as a means to strengthen ecosystem loyalty. Although Windows users’ health would improve after switching to Bing as much as teenagers’ health would after drinking a glass of milk, the approach is still a good sign of Microsoft’s strategy to promote and eventually integrate its constellation of services. Whether you want to sell your Microsoft device or are curious about the latest technology company’s moves, it is clear that Microsoft, despite being higher on the giant’s ladder, is still hard at work reinventing the future of technology.