“Apple opted to use Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine for its Spotlight (built-in search app of Mac OS) and Siri in 2014,” Motek Moyen writes for Seeking Alpha. “After reportedly paying billions of dollars annually to Apple, Alphabet remains the default search engine for the desktop and mobile versions of Apple’s web browser, Safari. Consequently, I speculate that Microsoft probably did not offer enough incentive to Apple this year.”
“Apple decided two days ago to replace Bing with Google Search for Siri and Spotlight. Apple was still kind enough to retain Bing as the default search results provider for images,” Moyen writes. “However, it is undeniable that Apple just worsened Bing’s already pathetic 2% (Bing also powers Yahoo mobile/desktop search) share in mobile search.”
“Replacing Bing with Google Search can improve the artificial intelligence quality of Siri’s answers,” Moyen writes. “Nobody is blaming Bing but Siri had the second-lowest rate in comprehension and answering questions, just a tad better than the Bing-powered Alexa. However, Siri posted the lowest rate of accuracy in its answers. The incompetence of Siri is why Apple decided to replace Bing with Google Search. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Or maybe Google offered to pay even more to have access to people with disposable income and the proven will to spend it. Plus, Safari on Mac and iOS already currently use Google search as the default provider, so now the search results will be consistent across Apple platforms and services.
SEE ALSO:
Apple switches default from Bing to Google for Siri web search on iOS and Spotlight on Mac – September 25, 2017