Opinion post by

Calvin Wankhede

While setting up a fresh copy of Windows 11 a few months ago, I neglected to install Google Chrome and got straight to installing other programs. Naturally, this meant using Microsoft defaults — the Edge web browser and Bing search engine. The last time I tried either of them, Internet Explorer was still alive and everyone hated Bing. But even though the latter hasn’t changed after all this time, I was surprised to find that Bing didn’t get in my way like I thought it would.

Still, I didn’t intend to stay loyal to Microsoft’s defaults; it was simply a temporary situation while I set up the rest of the computer. But that urgency to switch back to Chrome quickly left my mind when I stumbled upon Microsoft Rewards. The pitch is simple: keep using Bing every day and Microsoft will pay you real money for the trouble. So is it worth it? I switched to Bing full-time late last year to find out. And as I’ll explain in this article, the results are interesting, even if you set aside the financial incentive.