Justin Pot, who I wish wrote his newsletter more often:

Tech companies see you as a number. I used to work inside one that was obsessed with metrics—design decisions were evaluated based on whether they made the right numbers go up. This philosophy, taken to its extreme, can prompt designers to completely go against the will of users. This can be a hard point to grasp. 

So I’m thankful to Microsoft, who earlier this year did something so egregious it made the point crystal clear. I’m talking about the time they made a fake Google homepage and showed it to everyone who searched for the word “Google”. 

…

Someone at Microsoft noticed millions of people were searching for Google on Bing and, in an attempt to make a bit more money, mocked up something that could manipulate a few users. It’s cynical, sure, but it’s what you can expect from the big tech companies right now.

Microsoft later reversed course, but only after being publicly shamed for it.

Ed Zitron coined the term “digital tinnitus” to describe the kind of low-stakes user hostilities that tech companies have turned to in hopes of squeezing a little more growth out of stagnant products. I think this applies here as well.

(See also: My newsletter this week on blocking Google’s sign-in pop-ups.)