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Bing and Yahoo reportedly aiming to become default iOS search engine as Google’s contract runs out

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Last week Mozilla announced that its Firefox browser would be dropping Google as the default search engine in favor of Yahoo. While it’s a good move for Yahoo, it won’t gain the company the exposure that comes with being the default search engine on something more widely used, such as Apple’s Safari browser on iOS devices.

That position has been held by Google since the iPhone’s launch in 2007, but the agreement that made the Mountain View-based company the default site for all of Safari’s searches will expire next year, and The Information reports that Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing are both vying for the spot.

Both Yahoo and Bing have been included as user-selectable options in Safari for years now, but with Google and Apple constantly at one another’s throats over some smartphone patent or another, the two companies now see the perfect chance to put themselves in one of the most prominent mobile browsers they can.

Apple previously has pulled the plug on Google’s other iOS integrations, such as Maps and the built-in YouTube app in iOS 6, so it makes sense that the company might want to pick a new search provider as well. With Apple holding a sizable chunk of the mobile web traffic market, becoming the default search engine on the company’s devices would be a huge boon for Google’s competitors.

We’ve known for some time that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been pushing to make her service the default search option on iOS, but Microsoft’s Bing recently gained traction on iOS devices when it became the exclusive search provider for Siri.

While Mayer may have been working on convincing Apple’s executive team for months, the company might want to unify the Safari and Siri search results by setting Bing as the default in the browser. It will certainly be interesting to see who comes out on top in the end.

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Comments

  1. Michael Sin - 9 years ago

    no!! I love google search…

  2. coolguyme - 9 years ago

    I find it annoying that I’ll have to go in and change it back to google

    • bunim1 - 9 years ago

      It will just be one of those things…..

    • philboogie - 9 years ago

      A one-time only change, possibly to be repeated once a year after a major release? Wow.

    • Mosha - 9 years ago

      It’s such a minor inconvenience that it’s not worth complaining about. It’s just one of those things… Be happy you have the option

    • theoddshipp - 9 years ago

      You won’t even notice it if you get a new phone and restore from a backup. This just gives those in last place some hope and Apple some extra cash, nothing more.

    • Right, because having to do something that takes 10 seconds is an affront to humanity.

      #firstworldproblems

  3. Ian Meyer (@IBBM94) - 9 years ago

    Even if Google isn’t the default browser for Apple products, I’ll still use it. Yahoo and Bing really aren’t anywhere close to as good of a search engine as Google is. Nevertheless, it makes sense that Apple is dropping Google, especially since they have become top competitors with one another.

    • While I’m still not sold on Yahoo I’ve come to find that Bing is just as powerful and just as useful as Google. I wouldn’t have said that a year ago but they’ve improved their search results significantly since then.

      I recommend doing multiple searches in both engines and see how they compare. I think you’ll be surprised by how much Bing has evolved.

  4. Avenged110 - 9 years ago

    Could anyone better versed in current jb tweaks point me in the direction of the one used here for placing the time on the left of the status bar?

  5. Kawaii Gardiner - 9 years ago

    What I’d love to know is why the media keeps saying that Yahoo uses bing when the reality is that I go to yahoo.com, put in a search term and back comes a page that states that it still being powered by Google. Why do people in the media keep claiming that there is a deal when in reality Yahoo is still coming back with search results powered by Google?

    • Klaus Dietrich Lange - 9 years ago

      When I go to yahoo.com and make a search I see the following at the bottom right of the result page:

      Powered by Bing™

      • Kawaii Gardiner - 9 years ago

        Maybe it isn’t something that is universal because yahoo.com redirects me to Yahoo NZ and Australia and it comes back saying that it is powered by Google. It will be interesting to see what Yahoo does because the current CEO is talking about developing their own in house search engine and that she regrets Yahoo signing up to Bing. If they come through with their own search engine then it will be interesting to see whether that impacts upon their success/failure to win over Apple. Personally for me I’ve closed off my Google account and have standardised on Bing and Microsoft’s own cloud services – things seem to be going well so far.

  6. weissblut - 9 years ago

    DuckDuckGo. Forever.

    • Mosha - 9 years ago

      I’m going to give DuckDuckGo a trial on my phone for the next week and see how it goes. It’s important to keep in mind that while the service doesn’t track you, it doesn’t keep you anonymous from your ISP.

    • samuelsnay - 9 years ago

      I had never even heard of it before iOS 8, and now it’s all I use.

  7. One advantage this could bring to Google is to continue to push the idea that Google Now is available from the Google app. Additionally they should also use the app as the baseline component necessary to drive Android Wear once they’ve made it compatible with iOS.

    What will be interesting, however, is if Google will see a drop in ad revenue if Apple moves forward. I imagine their shareholders aren’t too happy with this news.

  8. Mark (@hallmr1972) - 9 years ago

    I’ve been trying to be google-free for years, so I use Bing. Yahoo’s search is terrible, and the way it displays image searches or plays videos you’ve searched for (stretching them and trying to play them from Yahoo’s site) is awful.

  9. kl$ (@kelsiwhitney) - 9 years ago

    I really hope this doesn’t happen. Or if it does, google search will still be an option. If so then not a problem.

  10. Winski - 9 years ago

    Duck Duck GO is the ONLY answer… The rest is just revenue noise and NOT INTENDED TO HELP THE CONSUMER !!!

  11. abel9037 - 9 years ago

    What yahoo and bing need is to have less ads all over the screen and a simple UI that has the most used shortcuts, limited at 5, then we will use it

  12. Scott Hilt (@scotthilt) - 9 years ago

    I started using Bing about a year ago simply to earn gift cards through Bing Rewards, but I never left and I don’t miss Google one bit. In fact, I don’t even have a Google account. So to me it really doesn’t matter to who ends up being the default, I’m changing it to Bing anyways. I tried Bing for the free stuff, stayed for the great results.