Apple,

I know you're competing with google more than MSFT, but really? Seriously?

Whether we like it or not, everybody needs a little bit of Microsoft, it's like salt. Convenient memories forget that $150 million and a commitment to continue developing Office for the Mac help save Apple back in 1998, or is that reality just a little to nauseating to accept? Without the money and the software, a cute green computer would not have been enough to save out favourite fruit. While connectivity is the byword of the new decade with remote this and wireless that, interoperability was essential to the future of the Mac in decades past!

now that's one bold statement there ff11. some research into their history would do you good.

and what does that have to do with using bing? i don't use ms because they don't compete, they purchase.
fact: ms internet (msn, msn search, live search (bing), hotmail, etc) have never made a single dollar in profit. not one. in over 10 years of existence. hundreds of millions lost year after year after year. ballmer says they'll pump BILLIONS more into search if they need to. if this is competition they lost a long time ago. but they won't go away because they don't have a bottom line, they have cash cows. without the cash cows ms internet would be in worse shape than yahoo. my guess is they wouldn't exist at all.
it's not competition, it's not free market. they lost, yet... here they are. not for me thanks.

"Apple is negotiating with Microsoft to replace the default search engine in the iPhone OS, two anonymous sources say."
I could be an anonymous source and spew any sort of c*** and it would get eaten up by journalists and bloggers.

Unfortunately the reality is that there have always been certain "make or break" features (usually applications) on computers. Can you imagine the trouble it would be for Apple if, say, most of the fancy Google services stopped working on Macs? No Google Docs for example, would certainly cost Apple considerable sales (and most people aren't going to spend the extra cash to buy a copy of Windows to run under Virtual Box or Parallels or Fusion). So it isn't in the interest of a company like Apple to "upset" any company which supports their platform with critical services or applications - and that includes both Microsoft and Google. My guess is that Apple may be working with both companies on this whole mobile Advertisement thing, not trying to go exclusive. There is too much room for bad feelings there, and ultimately companies are run by humans who sometime react badly to perceived insults (remember what happened with Ford and Ferrari back in the 60's).

Everybody purchases. Heck, Apple has done some major purchasing lately. It's what you do after you purchase a technology that counts.

To me, the Bing search engine and iPhone app are well designed, useful and speedy - decidedly un-MS. If they are finally getting the hint that they can't throw lousy products on the market and expect people to use it because "we're MS and you must like it," all the better.

they're not purchasing anything, they're pumping money into things to keep them afloat.
where is the cube? didn't make money, gone. my favorite bicycle model, of which i've owned 3, was discontinued. no money, gone. car models, car companies, clothes, shoes, restaurants, computers, mp3 players, tennis rackets, entire companies, web and brick and mortar... they all disappear if there is not profit.
not so with ms. xbox. 10 BILLION in losses before it's first profitable quarter. name me one other company, one will do nicely, that can keep a product out there and lose that kind of money while doing it. would the sony ps still be out there if it had lost a fraction of that? no.
ms does not do business like others because there is no bottom line with them.
as ballmer said, ms may not be first or best but they just keep coming and coming and coming...
translation: we'll throw money into it until you die.

...if we all correctly recall, our favorite historical German oppressor had a hand in designing and ultimately pushing into market the first VW Beetles.

I sure see a lot of hippie, tree-hugging, anti-oppression liberals driving vintage Beetles around.

It's not out-of-the-ordinary for something purely evil to have a hand in creating something purely revolutionary and useful.

(Not to mention most "hippies" back in the day were simply spoiled, walking hypocrites with rich parents -- very much NOT the free-love, free-spirit, I-got-no-money-and-I-ain't-mad-about-it wandering wayfarers they are portrayed as in the movies and on TV... but that's a conversation better suited for a different MacNN article.)

Yay!

Raise your hand if you fall in the hypocrite category: driving some form of VW Beetle and preaching the "evil-ness" of Microsoft... come on, it's ok to say so -- we won't judge you (yeah, right!).

So, you wouldn't buy a machine because you don't like the default settings?

At a guess, what you're actually seeing here is negotiating tactics - Google will be continually pressuring it's partners into lower revenue from search boxes ('you need us more than we need you') while Microsoft desperately need to grow Bing, so will presumably be offering better rates.

From a business point of view it makes sense to play them off against each other, even if you intend to go with Google.

And from a personal point of view, I want Yahoo and Microsoft around - there's something wrong when a market is pretty much sewn up by one player (IBM, Microsoft, Google) - it's bad for innovation and competition. Just think how much we don't question the basic idea of the web as free and funded by advertising - there's no reason why that model is natural.

"Not to mention most "hippies" back in the day were simply spoiled, walking hypocrites with rich parents -"

and you know those people behind the wheels of theose beetles are liberal how exactly? because it fits your argument? or did you stop each and every one of them and ask?

so, pumpkin, some proof? any? any at all? or are you just another regurgitor that simply repeats what you've been told to say as though we'll believe it because you said it? you know, throw out the word "liberal" like that is some kind of a valid argument. c'mon, raise your hand if the shoe fits. i'll wait.

I refuse to use Bing and if Apple were to make Bing default in Safari I would be disappointed in them as much as I don't like google anymore as a company these days.

I would actually like to see Apple add more options in the Safari search field. While Apple might make Bing the default (as Google is now), I highly doubt Apple will make it exclusive.

The Apple/Google relationship was fine as long at the two companies didn't compete directly with on another, but now with not only Android, but an Google branded phone, a completing web browser, and the Chrome OS, well, Google is as much of a competitor as Microsoft.

It would be foolish for Apple to hang it's hat on a variable that Google could yank out from under them (or hamstring by delaying platform specific updates) at anytime. The rumors that Apple is developing it's own map app makes total sense. Does that mean the won't be anymore Google maps? That's probably going to be up to Google as it would no longer be the default map app. If anything, it'll prompt Google to more aggressively update features for the iPhone OS version. For instance, where is the Google app for it's turn-by-turn direction app found on only the, surprise surprise, Android.

Let's be clear, Apple is not trying to punish Google for competing against them. Rather Apple has recognized Google as a competitor and is correctly adjusting it's business so that it's not vulnerable. Apple essentially did the same thing with Microsoft and developed Safari and Apple has continued to develop it's Office Suite despite it's relatively small usage.

and what does that have to do with using bing? i don't use ms because they don't compete, they purchase.

And Apple buys all the time. They bought out fingerworks to use for the iPhone. The bought some English company to get its cover flow software.

In fact, the biggest purchase at Apple was when they finally determined they were incapable of developing an operating system or get someone to run a business, so they had to go out and buy Next to get the OS and their CEO.

fact: ms internet (msn, msn search, live search (bing), hotmail, etc) have never made a single dollar in profit. not one. in over 10 years of existence.

Yeah, and how are all those other internet ventures doing? Except for a select few (like Google and Yahoo, who've done nothing but basically buy up all the other popular web sites), most never make any money.

No Microsoft. No Bing
Want to push me to Linux full time? No problem. Put Microsoft anything on the device and I will NOT be buying it. EVER!


So I guess you don't buy any Macs, since they all come with the Office demo on it.

Someone's been default searching with bong.

unless they allow me to keep google as my search engine.

Beside my Microsoft avoidance, Bing results anyway don't satisfy me compared to google's, as bing's interface.

what is your point? purchasing a company is not the same as buying your way into a market.

and thank you so much for making my point, except for google which, uh, you know, makes some money. and yahoo makes money but not enough often enough. but they certainly used to.

and ms internet? why it doesn't make a single nickle and never has. not one. like in EVER! in over a decade of business ms internet technologies has lost hundreds of millions of dollars every single year. is that too hard for you to follow? would yahoo still be around if it lost that kind of money? google? anybody else at all? no no no no no. even amazon was struggling back in the day but it never came close to losing that kind of money year after year after year. yet it was close to going under.

so... please name me one other company that could still have this stuff out there? again, one will do nicely. again... i'll wait.

I really doubt this one os true... If any of you have tested Bing (and I hope a number of you have) you will see just how bad it is...

Many wrong answers, slow and worst of all the interface!!!!

If Apple does allow Bing as an option it will only be because M$ pays though the nose for it and we will be able to choose not to use it.

If not I think there will be a lot more Nexus One phones sold!!!!!!

bing image search and travel search is so much better than anything google has.