Bing going big: Apple's default search engine?

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

We assume you've heard the whole China-Google-IE6 debacle that's going on, along with the the Apple-Google falling out, so it really comes of no surprise that Microsoft is using this opportunity to edge Bing over Google search.

In fact the rumor du jour is that Apple is seriously considering replacing Google search as their default search engine on the iPhone with Bing.  And why not?  Bing has turned out to be a big hit for Microsoft, which is no small feat considering the competition.

We expect as Google gets bigger and more powerful this will happen more often. How long do you think Firefox will continue their relationship with Google and Chrome? We've also heard recent inside report that some OEMs are not happy with Google and the Nexus One for obvious reasons.

Sure if Microsoft pulls this off, it's partially because they're a pawn, but a win is a win in business. Plus the better Bing does, the more money Microsoft can sink into fixing our Bing for Mobile 5.0 application, ahem.

[Businessweek via The iPhone Blog]

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson

Phil is the father of two beautiful girls and is the Dad behind Modern Dad. Before that he spent seven years at the helm of Android Central. Before that he spent a decade in a newsroom of a two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist newspaper. Before that — well, we don't talk much about those days. Subscribe to the Modern Dad newsletter!

12 Comments
  • very interesting if apple and msft became friends bc of google. i think that's a little premature on apples front but being an msft fan i'm all for it. like the article says, google has to start doing things like this if they want to be a major player.
  • Bit sad that WM is in such a pitiful state that MS has to go begging to apple, who will eventually turn round and kick them out when their own search engine is ready.
  • That is so true. Apple will pretend to go to bed with Microsoft by switching their default search engine to Bing... and then they'll stab Microsoft on the back by launching their own search engine or by buying Yahoo before Microsoft does.
  • MS beggin Apple? I think it is Apple who is pissed at Google major time, for being such shameless copycats and doublecrossers, and came to contact with MS to get rid of Google on the iPhone.
  • Why is it when Microsoft tries to expand to another OS the are desperate but when Google or Apple create software to run on Windows they are considered a threat to Microsoft's dominance. Apple has depended on Microsoft for years. You can't buy a Mac without Microsoft Office or Boot Camp preinstalled. Apple pushes hardware 1st and software 2nd. Apple is a smart company with no loyalty to anyone but the shareholders. If they believe that Bing is up to there standards they will use it to increase sales of there hardware. They don't care if it comes from Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Bing is very good search engine that can work great no any platform. The Blackberry Bing app is great too. Google has hurt themselves by burning many bridges and by withholding features on there competitors phones. Whatever you think of Microsoft they are smart enough to not do this, be it Office or Bing search.
  • If they go through with this, I will get rich by creating an app to switch the default back to Google. Yes, there will be an app for that.
  • It will probably just be an option in the "preferences" screen.
  • unusual choice from apple....is there an antitrust case looming that we dont know about?
  • Any one notice that the Bing home page features an add for iPhone apps this morning? Interesting... See the lower left side of the Bing homepage.
  • Good find Anonymous.
  • When you do a blind test, most people wouldn't care one way or the other. Google still has phenomenal brand equity (in just over 10 years they've managed to become a verb.) But the truth is their results aren't appreciably any better much of the time. http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=839 And when you take the blinders off and start looking at the formatting and presentation of search results it's all just a matter of preference. People are conditioned to Google's simple results page. But other than mild tweaks it hasn't changed much at all in nearly a decade. Meanwhile a site like Bing has arguably a more useful results page while still feeding Google-quality results. I still default to Google for general web search. But I have converted over to Bing whenever I want to do an image or video search as I much prefer their presentation of the results.
  • Bing still is horrid next to Google. I am a real bad speller. The spell checker in Google Search is really, really, good and saves me hours. I typed in the same misspelled search terms many times in Bing and got no matches! Bing currently is worthless to me. Here is a good example of a good spell check match. Type this in Bing and Google and see my point... "feeding matija poppies" The word should be spelled "Matilija"