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Microsoft Businesses Google Apple

Microsoft Says Apple Used Bing Offer as Google 'Bargaining Chip' (bloomberg.com) 41

Posted by msmash from the sad-realities dept.
A Microsoft executive said the company has tried for years to displace Alphabet's Google as the default web browser on iPhones, but that Apple never seriously considered switching to Microsoft's Bing and was content to use it as a "bargaining chip" with the search giant. From a report: "Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does," Mikhail Parakhin, the head of Microsoft's advertising and web services, testified during the US government's antitrust trial against Google in Washington. "We are always trying to convince Apple to use our search engine." Parakhin, who joined Microsoft in 2019 from Russian search engine Yandex NV, said Microsoft met with Apple as recently as 2021 to discuss a potential switch to Bing, but didn't make any progress.

In response to Google's lawyers, Parakhin said it was "uneconomical for Microsoft to invest more" in technology for the mobile search market. "Unless Microsoft gets a more significant, or firmer guarantee of distribution, it makes it uneconomical to invest." Apple has used Google as the default search engine in its Safari browser since 2003 in exchange for a share of the advertising revenue earned through searches made on its devices.
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Microsoft Says Apple Used Bing Offer as Google 'Bargaining Chip' More

Microsoft Says Apple Used Bing Offer as Google 'Bargaining Chip'

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  • Do we even have any editors here (Score:4, Insightful)

    by devoid42 ( 314847 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @01:07PM (#63881419)
    Web browser? you mean search engine? Editors don't even read the summary much less the article these days.
    • As fast as they regurgitate the stories leaves little time to read, assuming the can or do read,

    • That was my thought too, Apple didn't even let you change your default web browser until IOS 14 so they almost certainly mean "default search engine" so whoever wrote this really needs some help with the facts.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      More to the point, I'm trying to figure out what rock somebody has been living under, that they think this is news to anyone. I'm not even sure I can imagine a parallel universe in which Apple would seriously consider making Bing the default search engine on their phones. If things were *that* different from our timeline, neither Apple nor Microsoft would exist.
  • It gave you a choice of search engines and did it through a standardized interface.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by _merlin ( 160982 )

      I liked Sherlock, but after a while it just stopped working properly. I guess it wasn't updated for changes in the search engine pages/APIs, and Google had become so dominant that a meta-search engine didn't seem as useful to Apple any more.

  • Only MS would understand this monopolistic behavior, as they ironically testify against another monopolist, while at the same time trying to monopolize the gaming industry, operating systems, productivity software, AI and cloud.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      Neither MS nor Apple currently have much of a monopoly. The monopoly is Google and its parent and subsidiary companies, and Facebook and its parent and subsidiary companies. Microsoft and Amazon are a runner up to those two, but Apple isn't even in the same playing field. Linux has more market share than Apple.

  • I just can't take anything named "Bing" seriously. Google is also a stupid name, but it sort of means something (googolplex) and it's been around so long I'm used to it.

  • Microsoft executive said the company has tried for years to displace Alphabet's Google as the default web browser on iPhones

    Don't you mean search engine instead of web browser? Please pay some attention when you post.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Three chances out of four, somebody was typing too fast and accidentally words out. The copy was probably intended to read, approximately, "... as the search engine for the default web browser on iPhones"

  • This just in (Score:3)

    by lsllll ( 830002 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @01:51PM (#63881509)
    Seller went with the highest bid. It happens on eBay and auction houses all over the place. You bid $2. Someone else bids $3, so you up your bid to $4 to win the item. The seller "leveraged" the $3 bid to get the person who really wanted the item to pay $4 for the item. Been probably happening for thousands of years.

  • Microsoft has been trying for years to displace Google as my default search too, and I have never seriously considered it either.

  • Bing is (Score:2)

    by Chas ( 5144 )

    Marginally better than having no search engine, if you need a search engine in the first place.

  • "It's uneconomical for us to invest in a product unless we have a lock on clients purchasing it first" says Microsoft.

    "We're unable to develop anything as workable and useful as Google Search but we do have a cool name for our Bing" says Microsoft.

    "Would you believe our Windows operating system is the single largest reason for malware in the world?" doesn't say Microsoft, but it's true.

    Would the world be better off if Microsoft just shuttered its doors... or if Google did.

    Bye, MS. You're a disease.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Google and Microsoft are both 900-pound gorillas in the tech world, and they both throw their weight around, but yeah, the big difference is, Google is generally fairly competent most of the time. Microsoft wouldn't know competent even if Clippy helped them with it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HBI ( 10338492 )

        There's plenty of competence inside Microsoft, but the product groups are busy fighting amongst themselves and think that more important than real world results. Having Office/Windows/Teams profits to fall back on helps.

        Mix in an attitude amongst the less viable employees that if you move jobs every 2 years, you can entirely avoid bad reviews via stack ranking. Which is correct in large part, means that MSFT is carrying a lot of dead weight via people who are gaming the system. Despite the frequent layof

        • Tony Fadell's "Build" provides some insight into the inner workings of Google. Fadell was not particularly complementary. "Build" is an excellent read for many reasons, including his perspective on Google management.

  • You guys haven't tried to get Apple to switch since 2021? Maybe you should try nagging them constantly like you do your customers?

  • Does Microsoft not know how these negotiations go?

    You give them an offer. So does your competition. The receiver of these offers then compares them. Sometimes they choose then, sometimes they go back and ask for "best and final" - and if your "best and final" doesn't beat the competition's, then you don't get chosen.

    Next time be better and more final, or build a better product that diminishes the price argument. Until then, have a nice salty cry.

  • That's their bread and butter tactic their entire existence.

  • or firmer guarantee of distribution, it makes it uneconomical to invest." Or, viewed from the other side - unless Microsoft invests more in it's shitshow of a search engine, no one will distribute it.

  • ... certainly a "chip". Just not sure it's a bargaining chip.

  • Fucking cry about it, bitch. Make a good search engine instead of making it the default and begging people to use it and maybe they actually will.

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