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Tell HN: Edge has started showing banner ads in its UI

12 points by schemescape ↗ HN
Edge just showed me a (huge) ad within the browser UI (between the address bar and web view):

> Take your AI-powered copilot for the web on the go! Download Microsoft Edge on your mobile device to sign-up and get ready for the new Bing experience!

This is especially irritating because there's no reason to show me this ad--I already use Edge as my primary browser on mobile (because the latest iOS update made Safari start losing its scroll position when going back to a previous page).

Between this and the frequent repinning of an Edge icon to my Windows desktop (every single update), I'm fairly annoyed.

Does FireFox do this kind of annoying stuff? Is there another browser I should try?

Edit: I've seen small "ads" before in Edge (like "try this new feature" or "oh no, please don't install Chrome"), but never just a literal huge banner ad.

12 comments

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askiiart
No, no other browsers do this.
schemescape
Well, Brave was caught inserting affiliate links and Google properties definitely nag me to switch to Chrome (for my own sake).

But Edge has clearly gone too far here.

askiiart
Ah, didn't hear about that fiasco. But I'd recommend switching to Firefox, as they're keeping manifest V2 support. Also, stuff gets synced in Firefox if you have a Firefox account, so it matches up with pretty much all of Chrome's major features.
NayamAmarshe
It wasn't 'caught' with anything, as much as those spicy news articles would have you believe.

It was a URL suggestion bug. It was supposed to be turned off by default, and suggest content instead of replacing it.

The bug was fixed in a day after release, the PR is on GitHub. Brave is open source, unlike Chrome and Edge. Let's stop treating FOSS like the other spyware.

This also happened when Brave was like 5 months old. The feature since then has been turned off by default and the affiliate thing was shut down a long ago.

schemescape
I hope you're right. Maybe I read too much into Brendan Eich's comment at the time:

> The autocomplete default was inspired by search query clientid attribution that all browsers do, but unlike keyword queries, a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions. Sorry for this mistake — we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly.

"Course correct" made it sounds like it was intentional, but that they backtracked due to negative feedback. I'll admit that I didn't research the issue any further.

32gbsd
Took one look at edge and was like nope.
menshiki
Sometimes Firefox will encourage me to use Pocket or check out their VPN, but I don't find it very intrusive. I think Firefox is the best Windows browser at the moment. Your opinion may vary though. If you need a chromium-based browser, you may want to check out Ungoogled Chromium.
schemescape
Wow, it gets even worse -- the new tab page has been reinfested with "news" (something I specifically had turned off a long time ago).

I give up... if they're going to treat me like an ad-viewing commodity, I'm just going to switch to FireFox.

FractalHQ
Brave is the only chromium browser that is built on privacy-first principles. It’s amazing and has a powerful Adblock built right in. My UBlock almost never showed anything being blocked because Brave takes care of it all.

Way more people should be using Brave (and before you parrot “reee crypto” just don’t opt in to it if you don’t want free money for a Mullvad subscription or something).

NayamAmarshe
Classic case of "fuel the monopoly, suffer the monopoly".

Edge, even if it's a feature rich browser, is inherently bad for the consumers because it gains more from you, than you gain from it.

Browsers like Brave, Firefox are much better at providing the same services without treating you like an oil mine.

Respect the software that respects the user, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Edge are not that.