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OpenAI consumer product lead Adam Fry said at a Monday press event that ChatGPT's search query volume has reached roughly 20 percent of Google's. Fry defined a search as any query triggering a web search, excluding simple definitions or how-to answers, and did not disclose the source of the Google comparison figure.
Security researcher John Tuckner of Socket documented 319 Chrome extensions, collectively installed 13.4 million times, that silently override users' default search engine and reroute queries through proxy servers before landing on Bing or Yahoo. This builds on his April 2025 finding of 57 such extensions with 6 million users, adding 264 newly identified ones covering another 8.7 million installs. The extensions masquerade as PDF converters, search tools, and similar utilities, and are unlisted on the Chrome Web Store, spreading instead through ads on other websites.
Push Security reports that a malvertising campaign is routing Google search ads through Bing's trusted click-tracking domain before funneling victims through a hacked WordPress site to a fake Claude download page. The scheme, found after a malicious ad surfaced for searches like "claude mac," uses layered cloaking checks to hide the malicious payload from scanners and direct visitors, ultimately pushing macOS users toward ClickFix-style attacks that trick them into running malicious commands.
Microsoft's Bing Wallpaper app, which normally rotates nature and landscape photos, recently displayed a promotional image for a Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts 11-film collection instead. Users on Reddit, Thurrott.com and Microsoft Learn forums expressed surprise and frustration, with some mistaking the ad for adware and others objecting due to JK Rowling's political controversies.
A long-time Bing Wallpaper user reported that the desktop app displayed a full-screen advertisement for a Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts box set instead of the usual daily wallpaper image. The user said this was the first time they had encountered such an ad after years of regular use, and initially suspected their system had been infected with adware.
President Trump has signed an executive order directing that Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America, echoing his earlier move to rename the Gulf of Mexico. Major map providers like Apple, Google and Bing may eventually adopt the new name based on federal geographic databases, but MapQuest has publicly declared it will not change its listing, mockingly suggesting users invent their own names for the lake instead.