“Apple is working with Microsoft to broaden the iPhone’s search and related web services from their current primary dependance upon Google to include additional support for Bing,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider.

“According to a report by TechCrunch, Apple’s next revision of the iPhone OS won’t drop Google for Bing entirely, but will expand the number of search options iPhone users see, and apparently make those options more visible,” Dilger reports.

“Apple already provides an option to use Yahoo for web search in Safari, although that option is not obvious and requires visiting system settings to make the switch,” Dilger reports. “A parallel report by Kara Swisher in the Wall Street Journal ‘All Things Digital’ blog indicates Microsoft has been asking that Bing search be added to the iPhone’s search options for some time, and also wants to make the choice more visible to users.”

Dilger reports, “Microsoft has also been in talks with Apple to get its mapping services integrated into the iPhone. Individual iPhone apps have already made use of Microsoft’s mapping services, but Apple’s own Maps app on the iPhone and iPad is hardwired to Google’s mapping services. Last fall, Apple purchased Placebase, a mapping service designed to overlay demographic, economic and environmental data on top of maps. It has since been speculated that Apple planned to use the acquisition to either build an alternative mapping service for iPhone Maps, or more likely, add additional layers of features on top of the current Maps data to differentiate the iPhone from Google’s own map app for Android.”

Read much more in the full article here.