“Baidu Inc. said Apple Inc. will be entitled to a share of advertising sales after the Chinese company’s search-engine was added as part of a software upgrade for iPhones in China,” Mark Lee reports for Bloomberg.
“The revenue-sharing agreement with Apple follows similar accords between Baidu and manufacturers of handsets that use Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system, Wang Jing, vice president at Beijing-based Baidu, said in a phone interview today,” Lee reports. “He declined to disclose the commercial terms.”
Lee reports, “Apple said this week it will offer Baidu’s search-engine as an option for iPhone and iPad customers, and add Chinese-language support for its Siri voice technology, as the world’s most valuable company tailors its products for Chinese consumers. Baidu, which fields about 80 percent of China’s Web searches, is prepared to incur costs to add smartphone users by offering services such as music streaming for free, Wang said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Explain to me why Apple- or any other Phone manufacturer- should be entitled to ad revenues from a search function on a phone that is owned by the end user?
The phone manufacturer is the gateway to you, the user. You could demand the search engine pay you instead if you like. Just like you could demand Facebook give you the money it gets for using your information, or Google or any other company that monetizes you.
I’d rather not be data mined. Funny how people can be charged with stalking, but companies do it for profit.
Stalking implies the very real possibility of physical harm and therefore constitutes a very real threat. Equating that with targeted advertising is not a stretch, it’s simply a fallacy.
No, stalking is unwanted surveillance. There does not have to be an implied threat.
If data mining isn’t illegal it should be. In fact, much of what is done by data miners for profit is forbidden by law to government agencies- who happen to be big customers of data miners.
Steve Jobs held some very sharply defined opinions concerning the privacy of customers, and he was correct to do so.
Apple fucked up search in iOS 6 and Mountain Luon by deleting the search box in Safari. I don’t know what the fuck they were thinking but some asshole in Cupertino should be brought out to the campus green and promptly dispatched with a bullet to the head.
Well, a shit load of people have sure been raving about how long they’ve been waiting for this. I guess your opinion isn’t shared by all. Chrome does this. I haven’t used it enough to have formed an opinion.
It’s an incentive to have OEM’s, carriers, or Apple include your search page as a default before it gets in the end users’ hand.
Good move.
When you set up your device you can specify which search engine is the default (as the user). Right now, Baidu has been added to the list of options. This means, every time you open a Safari window in iOS, next to the URL space is a search area – and the default can be assigned. Here in the US, the three options are Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Go to Settings>Safari>Search Engine
The alternative of course is that you navigate to the URL instead – but it’s an extra step for the user, and who knows where they might go instead LOL