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Microsoft Considering Building All-In-One App for Search, Shopping, Messaging, and More
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People already give this data to companies like Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft - perhaps just not in one app. The only thing new here is it’s all in one app. Not the data being collected.
Not *necessarily*.
The current internet retail experience is highly broken in multiple ways.
First is conversions – many people browse, put things in a shopping basket, and then just never buy. The hassle of having to create YET ANOTHER account for this new store, along with entering address and credit card details, is just too much. If MS provide a way to get that done behind the scenes so there simply is no friction there, that's worth a lot...
Second is knowing what you bought and where it is. There are various parcel tracking apps, all of which suffer from the same sort of fragmentation. They may manage to get tracking info from emails, but they have no insight into what's been ordered before it ships, and the email extraction is iffy.
Third is search. We have things like chatGPT, but internet retail search is stuck in 1999. Where's the ability to ask "the internet" for a " thin metal shelf, 12" by 4" " or something similar? And then refine the query as you see the various styles and options and want to zoom in on one particular style.
In PRINCIPLE an app that did this sort of thing well is worth serious money, and is of serious value to its users.
MS COULD just be planning a WeChat clone, but I don't think they're that dumb.
I had used edge - and liked it a lot over chrome - until they starting monitoring my browsing and shoving ads and shopping crap in my face.
They used to be the 'less evil alternative' to google. no more.
They used to be the 'less evil alternative' to google. no more.
MS gooses their usage statistics by making all W10 (and I assume W11) searchbar searches a Bing internet search, unless they turn off internet search explicitly.
So to answer your question, millions of people….unwittingly.
"Google pays Apple billions each year to stay the default on iPhone, and while users can change it, the default setting puts Microsoft's Bing at a disadvantage."
Hmm, what *if* Google just stopped paying them? What's Apple going to pick, DuckDuckGo? I highly doubt they would sacrifice user experience in their core apps. To my naive mind it seems like a mutual win, Apple wants the best search engine and Google provides it.
Hmm, what *if* Google just stopped paying them? What's Apple going to pick, DuckDuckGo? I highly doubt they would sacrifice user experience in their core apps. To my naive mind it seems like a mutual win, Apple wants the best search engine and Google provides it.
The One App to Rule Them All. Sauron would be proud!
I hope Microsoft makes a heavy investment in this project, there's little I enjoy more than watching them eat sh*t and fail spectacularly
It's like a browser, but one that only allows you to go to one site.
It's the future, really! /rolleyes
Yes I always change mine to bing, and was quite surprised they had google as default, but now I know why and I just installed edge on my m1, my last computer was Windows so I was surprised that it wasn’t in the App Store for my Mac so I had to search for it and download it directly from Microsoft and you just select the one for your classic or m1 Mac and now I have it, because my workflow is so much easier on a computer using Edge.
Those listed features should be separate extensions for Edge. That way you can just opt into them. Forcing it on everyone, ehhh, Might not go so well.
I applaud Microsoft for at least giving it a go (if true), but I believe the issue at heart is that they’re a corporate-focused business and have, historically, failed to ‘get’ what consumers want… right.
It’s almost unfortunate that their brand will let them down, because I can imagine that at the very least such an app could be a decent productivity tool.
It’s almost unfortunate that their brand will let them down, because I can imagine that at the very least such an app could be a decent productivity tool.
Doesn't it just feel like Microsoft 365? I sub to that and basically all of that is in the sub office app.
They could shut everything else down to force you to use it. I, for one miss basic IM clients.
I know WeChat is the obvious comparison here, but wouldn't a Microsoft "super app" also compete with Facebook's app? The latter has a marketplace, social media, it used to have messaging (before being spun off into Messenger), Facebook Gaming, and it's got that weird "Facebook Dating" service too 😅 Plus whatever else the company has dumped into it that I can't remember.
This is great. Lump all of their trash software together and then throw them all out.
Go ahead, recreate the wretched IBM Notes... see if I care. That's what Teams feels like's becoming. Life is indeed cyclical.
Prediction: It becomes too bloated and they then split all up again.
Prediction: It becomes too bloated and they then split all up again.