“Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Peter Burrows and Cliff Edwards report for BusinessWeek. “The talks have been under way for weeks, say the people, who asked not to be named because the details have not been made public.”
“The discussions reflect the accelerating rivalry between Apple and Google, now the main provider of Web search on the iPhone. While the two companies have worked as partners in the past and Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt had a seat on Apple’s board, Apple and Google have more recently begun competing in several markets, including mobile phones,” Burrows and Edwards report. “Google sells a smartphone, the Nexus One, that competes directly with the iPhone and it has spearheaded development of a wireless handset operating system that rivals the iPhone OS.”‘
Burrows and Edwards report, “A deal between Apple and Microsoft may mean iPhone owners would automatically get Microsoft’s Bing as the main search engine, possibly requiring users to actively change phone settings if they want to search via Google… Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a ‘skunk works’ looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that ‘if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.’ Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising—and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google—’Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.’”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google may well rue the day they got a little too greedy for their own good.
MacDailyNews Note: Currently, iPhone and iPod touch users have a choice of built-in search engines within Mobile Safari: Google or Yahoo (Settings>Safari>Search Engine) with Google being “on” by default on new Apple devices.
In addition, there are many Web Search apps available for iPhone and iPod touch. See them all via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.
Mac Safari users can easily install a plug-in such as the free Glims, to add multiple search engine choices to Safari.
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