I was using Brave. Clicked a link which opens a new tab but, instead of the page, got some kind of connection error (network changed or something? Can’t remember…). Suddenly a new tab opens at the end of the tab bar. URL is https://www.msn.com/en-ca/?ocid=wispr&pc=u477. Meanwhile, in the other tab, the link loaded automatically just a moment after displaying the error page. However, that MSN tab remained opened.
No enabled browser extensions.
Googling for this issue, I found a few users had this MSN url appear unexpectedly and it’s not clear why but it looks like it may be caused by Microsoft’s Network Connectivity Status Indicator.
I don’t know why my network would “change”, whatever that was. My desktop is plugged into a wi-fi extender which connects wirelessly to the router. But even if the connection got reset for some reason, I don’t know why an MSN tab opened unexpectedly, especially in a non-MS browser.
Do you know what the ocid=wispr&pc=u477 parameters are used for? Is it an ad campaign?
I’m an experienced and careful computer user but I’m running multiple virus/adware scans while typing this, just in case…
