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The most interesting part...Google paid Apple $1 Billion to be the default search engine for Apple products...

I personally have cut back on Google since learning they intentionally exploited Safari for the sake of their ads.


http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-mobile-search

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple Inc. (AAPL) as part of its antitrust probe of Google Inc., seeking information on how the computer maker incorporates the search engine on the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the matter said.

The agency’s request for documents includes the agreements that made Google the preferred search engine on Apple’s mobile devices, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly and declined to be identified. Google rivals such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have criticized these agreements as anticompetitive.

The subpoena indicates the FTC is intensifying its scrutiny of Google’s business practices. Details of the Apple-Google relationship may show whether Google is abusing its dominance of Internet search to boost revenue in the mobile phone advertising market, said Allen Grunes, an antitrust lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP in Washington.

[Dan]

It seems that regulatory authorities are going after any company that seems to have business practices that stifle competition.

I wonder, how hard is it to change the "primary" search provider on an iPhone? Is it something like how Internet Explorer was so connected to Windows that you had to keep IE to properly run Windows, or just a default setting easily changed. If it is easily changed, it would be similar to a PC in the mid 90's coming pre-loaded with compuserve or aol for internet access, while making other providers have to mail the customer a disk to sign up for service.

Google may well be guilty of certain anti-trust violations. If they are, the companies that worked with them to assist in heir domination in exchange for money may also be guilty of collusion.

Hopefully the device OS on all mobile phones will stop being so connected to the app's you can run on it. Android devices should be able to select Bing as a default search engine if desired, Apple should allow a Nook and Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad. Companies should compete based on making the best hardware, best software, best app's and best pricing for content like eBooks and music.

[Gary G. Little]

To change search providers it's a simple matter of going to Settings -> Safari -> Search Engine.

I'm using Bing, but Yahoo is also available. It just as simple to do it for the iPad and Mac, as well as IE. in Windows.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Gary G. Little

To change search providers it's a simple matter of going to Settings -> Safari -> Search Engine.

I'm using Bing, but Yahoo is also available. It just as simple to do it for the iPad and Mac, as well as IE. in Windows.

So Google paid a billion dollars for something the end user can easily change? Seems like a poor business decision to me, and maybe as much about Apple having a bidding war as much as it is Google wanting to be the primary search provider.

[cyorke]

Originally Posted by Dan

So Google paid a billion dollars for something the end user can easily change? Seems like a poor business decision to me, and maybe as much about Apple having a bidding war as much as it is Google wanting to be the primary search provider.

It does seem like a poor business decision until you think about how many people actually go to the trouble of changing their default search. All of the millions of iOs devices sold daily. It was probably well worth it for Google to shell out the money. I would think more than half of those people are not going to change it. Every search is more money in Google's coffers.