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Apple to drop Google in favor of Bing for iPhone search?

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On January 21, 2010, 12:10 PM EST

It looks like Apple's as-of-late troubled relationship with Google isn't getting any better. Citing "two people familiar with the matter," BusinessWeek reports that the Cupertino based company is shopping around for a search engine alternative to Google on the iPhone, and has supposedly spent "weeks" discussing a deal with none other than long time operating system rival Microsoft.

If true, the deal would give Bing a much-needed market share boost in the mobile sector. Apple would benefit too, as Microsoft would likely offer a higher cut of the mobile advertising profits than the company currently receives from Google to seal the deal. Of course, there is some concern that this could annoy iPhone users who like things just as they are, but the deal doesn't discard the option for them to manually switch search providers.

The magazine also said that Apple is looking at providing a search option itself eventually and that a deal with Microsoft may be "about buying itself time." Not so long ago the company also purchased a mapping software firm, suggesting that the Google Maps iPhone app could be on its way out of the default software bundle.

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User Comments (5)

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tengeta
on January 21, 2010
12:23 PM

I don't care what a default is, if people don't know how to change it thats their fault. Its time we stop handing everything to the people who don't even get what they use because its going to destroy the industry.

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gwailo247
on January 22, 2010
8:40 AM

"We don't like it that Google is now making phones, so we're taking out toys and going home, and just you wait until we make a search engine!!!! Tbttttttttttt!"

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Archean
on January 22, 2010
9:11 AM

"We don't like it that Google is now making phones, so we're taking out toys and going home, and just you wait until we make a search engine!!!! Tbttttttttttt!"

I guess its more of what i call 'our love affair with google'; nothing more as search results from other search engines like bing/yahoo etc. aren't that bad anymore; infact many times bing has turned up much better results than google for me. So for me its a non issue; I'd rather have more choices than none.

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BeAloud
on January 27, 2010
10:29 AM

Bing is getting better, I like to compare Bing and Google serps every now and then (last month I compared them on an "Apple" query http://www.bealoud.com/seo/apple-google-bing/ ) and while Google had fresher results mentioning the Apple tablet, it was also more vulnerable to spam. I don't think it's a bad deal for iPhone users.

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Guest
on March 31, 2010
4:48 AM

that's the way apple control anything, whether u wanna post your apps in itunes store, change the battery, run background apps, or even choose the search engine, apple don't give a ****, because this is their phones, not yours . . . . sad, that's closed platform, u have no choice, at all.

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