How do I change Bing to Google?

Does Microsoft keep track of when people change the little search bar at the top right of IE from Bing to Google?

• We are forced to use IE at work to get the most out of our web-based version of Outlook, so most of us have two browsers open at all times. I sometimes forget and put a search into Bing. So today I had someone show me how to change it permanently to Google. I was just wondering if Bing or Microsoft or whoever tracks that sort of thing. If they care, etc.

• Answer:

  I think it is impossible to track when someone changes the search bar to one service or the other. However, look at a complete URL when you search from the toolbar. At Google or Bing you will see a lot of variables in the URL, marked by &variable=something in the URL. Here you can see they know which browser you are using and stuff. So from that I gather that Bing, Google and everyone else know what browser you are using and where that search originated. Bing probably tracks which searches come from the IE search bar. Now IE can track where you browse to and see all those URL's, so they probably know when you do a Google search from your IE search bar as well. I think they can track how many searches are going on, but I don't know that they can track the exact moment someone changes their search bar settings per se.