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Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#21

Post by ajays »

Osmium wrote: post #15
bane wrote: post #10

Google should let it lapse, nothing would say that iOS devices are no longer the cool thing to own then having Bing or a lousy Apple brewed search engine be the default.

Why not just present users with a choice? I imagine no more than a single digit percentage would choose something other than Google, but it'd be enough to hit them and send a message. I'd also be interested in the potential legal angles here: since Google are competing with Apple in a separate market, are they allowed to use their position as search leader to harm Apple? (e.g. by not offering similar deals it offers…

If you present users with a choice, they'll still choose Google and Apple gets nothing. Make it the default, and Apple gets a cool $1B.

"A billion here, a billion there and soon we're talking about real money" ;-)

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#22

Post by gyardley »

bane wrote: post #10

Google should let it lapse, nothing would say that iOS devices are no longer the cool thing to own then having Bing or a lousy Apple brewed search engine be the default.

There's not that much of a difference between Google and Bing. Most of us are using Google for historical and cultural reasons - it's what we've used in the past and it's just what people like us do.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#23

Post by bobsy »

tych0 wrote: post #18
Me1000 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do your parents know how to change the default search engine on iOS? The desktop is a different beast than mobile; I think most mobile users just use the "search field" and find what they want. (Edited for typo)

I think his point was that his parents don't just use the search field -- they use google. That is, they'll search for google and then they'll search for what they want. If google ever quits paying apple, this is the bet they'll be making. Who knows if they're right.

This. I remember a phone call a while ago. My mother had taken her iPad to a hotel and "the Internet wasn't working."

I spent 5 minutes trying to get her to identify which is the url bar and which is the search bar in Safari. In the end I gave up. My mother is smart.. i swear.. she just somehow doesn't get this.

If she does accidentally use the search box it is to find Google which she almost certainly doesn't realise she is already using.

Really this is my point. Parents are deeply non-tech and it is ingrained in them to use Google whether it is the default search engine or not. I am a bit techy and I always switch the default search engine to Google.

Google paying this money doesn't do anything for my household or my parents. Between our two houses we have 5 iOS devices which are unaffected by this move. It is a tiny number but it makes me wonder how many more people are like this.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#24

Post by bilbo0s »

bobsy wrote: post #7

My parents are not tech savvy. However, they do know to 'Google' it. While they may not know how to change the home page it doesn't matter what device they are on. They go to Google to search. Even if that means finding Google through Bing. If they are doing this.. I wonder how much value this will actually be.

I don't think users work that way on phones. Even on my android phone I just search. Now it is also true that the info I am searching for with my phone is quite different than the info I search for with my computer... I don't know... maybe that's the difference... the type of information.

Not really sure... but I am sure that it never occurred to me which search engine I used on my phone. Or even if I borrowed someone else's phone to search for something, I never gave which search engine I was using a second thought. I am absolutely CERTAIN that I have never searched for Google... and then searched for what I was looking for... even with an iPhone I never did that.

I don't know... maybe Google was always the default? Can't remember... but I seriously doubt people have time to "setup" a mobile search. That's not how I work on a phone and I suspect a lot of other people don't either.

Even for maps... I hit maps... if Google comes up... that's what I search. If Bing or whatever comes up... that's what I search. I have never looked for Google maps... or for Bing Maps. Except on the desktop because I think Bing has that perspective "Bird's Eye" thing that's pretty cool. But I never used that on a phone, because it never occurred to me.

I don't know... that's just me. I'm kind of always in a hurry though... ESPECIALLY on the phone.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#25

Post by dubya »

gyardley wrote: post #22
bane wrote: post #10

Google should let it lapse, nothing would say that iOS devices are no longer the cool thing to own then having Bing or a lousy Apple brewed search engine be the default.

There's not that much of a difference between Google and Bing. Most of us are using Google for historical and cultural reasons - it's what we've used in the past and it's just what people like us do.

This claim is the basis for the Bing v. Google challenge (bingiton.com). I tried it, and preferred Google, mostly because I'm usually searching for technical terms.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#26

Post by [deleted] »

virtualritz wrote: post #11

What if Google refuses to pay? Will Apple remove Google as default search engine on iOS? Recall what happend when they replaced Google maps? Nah, I didn't think so. Clearly, someone at Morgan Stanley, who came up with this bollocks, must have been wearing their pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses most of the time last year, when the maps fiasko took place.

[deleted]

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#27

Post by ceejayoz »

tseabrooks wrote: post #5
mtgx wrote: post #2

Apple hasn't learned much from the Maps fiasco, have they? Also, Apple seems to be a lot more keen on hurting Google than on providing the best experience to their users. They did that with Maps, when they decided they'd rather give the users a poorer maps experience, than continue dealing with Google, and if Google refuses to pay this much, then they will do it with search, too.

Thats really only half the story. Apple couldn't give their customers the experience they wanted to give them: Turn by Turn, no data mining, etc... while staying with Google. So they made the decision to go their own way. Hindsight being 20/20 they should've stayed with the "subpar" google maps until their new maps were less "subpar". It's great to point out hindsight but it's hard to fault their logic that they need…

> Hindsight being 20/20 they should've stayed with the "subpar" google maps until their new maps were less "subpar".

I'd imagine widespread usage is necessary for that.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#28

Post by vidarh »

tych0 wrote: post #18
Me1000 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do your parents know how to change the default search engine on iOS? The desktop is a different beast than mobile; I think most mobile users just use the "search field" and find what they want. (Edited for typo)

I think his point was that his parents don't just use the search field -- they use google. That is, they'll search for google and then they'll search for what they want. If google ever quits paying apple, this is the bet they'll be making. Who knows if they're right.

One of my favorite "easter eggs" with Yahoo search (at least on search.yahoo.com) was that until recently, if you searched for Google, it would display a second Yahoo search box in the results with a text re-iterating that you could search the web via Yahoo to try to capture these types of users.

(These days it gives a "Search the web with Google" box, and the same if you search for Bing or Yahoo itself).

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#29

Post by goatforce5 »

virtualritz wrote: post #11

What if Google refuses to pay? Will Apple remove Google as default search engine on iOS? Recall what happend when they replaced Google maps? Nah, I didn't think so. Clearly, someone at Morgan Stanley, who came up with this bollocks, must have been wearing their pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses most of the time last year, when the maps fiasko took place.

Being the default search option everywhere is worth a lot to Google. A 2011 report says they pay Mozilla hundreds of millions of dollars to be the default search option in Firefox:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8975584/Google-...

So if Google doesn't pay? Bing or Yahoo will happily pay hundreds of millions to take their place.

Re: Google Could Pay Apple $1B Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS

#30

Post by benburleson »

risratorn wrote: post #13

To be honest wouldn't Google search disappearing from iOS devices play in google's advantage looking at their Nexus devices? I mean ... what are the odds Apple comes up with something beter, even third party?

From the sketchy article details, it seems like it's win-win for both Apple and Google. Google makes money from user searches on iOS, then shares a portion of that with Apple. The gamble is whether Google needs to be paying Apple anything at all.
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