The Bing search engine is not the most popular, because there is no one to blame Google. But there are still people who use it because it has been the default search engine in Windows for years and Microsoft Edge, or because there are people who simply prefer those results. Not being so successful, it is not surprising that reports have come out saying that Microsoft tried to sell Bing to Apple years ago.
Microsoft and Apple executives met in 2020 to discuss a possible sale of Bing, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The conversations did not go beyond the exploratory phase, so the idea was never seriously considered. It remains a curious story that explains the relationship that Microsoft has with its search engine.
Microsoft wanted to get rid of Bing and sell it
The latest Bloomberg report confirms that the lucrative deal between Apple and Google was a key reason for keeping things the way they were, that there was no monopoly and that people “simply choose Google for being better.” Apple had doubts about Bing’s ability to compete with Google on quality and capabilities. This is consistent with Cue’s testimony, who stated that “there was no valid alternative to Google at the time» at the time the agreement was originated, and that no equal has yet emerged in the many years since then.
Apple would be entering more than $20.000 billion annually as part of the agreement for having Google as the default search engine on iOS and iPadOS. DuckDuckGo's CEO has previously and recently complained that it takes too many steps to change the iPhone's default search engine. And there is a lot of money at stake due to the laziness of users who do not want to search through the options.
Source: The Verge
