It looks like Microsoft has come up with a new trick to keep those who accidentally end up on Bing from leaving for Google: Simply mimic the look of Google's homepage and hope no one will notice.
Visitors to Bing.com who conduct a search for 'Google' while not signed into their Microsoft accounts might notice something strange when they hit enter, as demonstrated in this video captured by The Register. Not only does the screen look suspiciously like a Google doodle, complete with a mostly blank white screen, a search bar, and some text beneath it, but the usual top bar that shows Bing's usual search bar and various ways to filter results is moved off the screen to add to the illusion.
Once the shift to hide the actual Bing bar is complete (the remaining search window is just another Bing search field, not a Google one), there's no obvious Microsoft branding at first glance - just a small banner promoting its Rewards points as a reason to "choose Microsoft Bing." Searches for other engines don't return similar results, nor do any other search terms we tried.
In short, with everything else Microsoft has tried to do, failing to move Bing beyond a place people go to get to Google, it seems Redmond's latest ploy may involve making Bing's homepage look like Google's to create familiarity or confusion.
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