Bing may become the default search engine on the i phone January 25, 2010
The rumour mill has it that Apple are on the brink of changing the default search engine on the Apple i-phone from Google to Bing. In the latest round of brinkmanship between the two technological monoliths, Apple are trying to draws lines of demarcation between Apple and Google users. Currently everytime an i-phone user clicks on a PPC ad on an Apple i-phone, Apple are paid a proportion of the revenue from the advertiser. And this revenue pot is growing, with revenues from mobile search set to hit $3.1 billion in 2013, so it is little wonder Bing are eager to get their foot in the door. In fact according to Jim Goldman from CNBC, a source is said to have been quoted as saying that Microsocft are”willing to throw much more money to Apple to ensure that they displace Google as the default engine. If that’s the case, it is an absolutely key point to getting a deal done.”
The seemingly bottomless pockets of Microsoft is assisting the company in making inroads, albeit small ones, into Google dominance of the search market. Not only may they pull the rug from under Google’s feet on the i-phone, they were also rumoured to be in talks with News Corp about a possible exclusivity deal over News Corp’s online content. But money doesn’t always equal success, there is still the product to consider. Unfortunately, this where Microsoft fall down in terms of search. Bing still does not produce results as relevant as Google and so the likelihood is that users will simply switch back to Google, meaning Microsoft may be throwing good money after bad with this deal. In fact Greg Sreling of Search Engine Land says that “The average iPhone user is going to be more sophisticated and better educated than the average PC user and so ‘switching back’ will be a behaviour many would likely engage in”
So Microsofts attempts to “force-feed” internet users their less than adequate search product continue. Perhaps instead of blowing vast sums of shareholder money on promotion they should work on improving the product itself to match Google’s relevance. If they could achieve this, the user base would surely follow.
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