Bing May Become the iPhone's Default Search Engine

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Apple reportedly is in talks with Microsoft to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone's Safari Web browser, according to Business Week. The idea may sound surprising, but it shows how deep the ongoing battle between Google and Apple (which started after the Google Voice iPhone application was barred entry into the iTunes App Store) has become.

What does this mean for iPhone and iPod Touch users?

If the deal goes through, then iPhone and iPod Touch users will actually have greater choice when it comes to in-browser search engines. Right now, Safari in the iPhone only offers Google and Yahoo, so adding Bing, the third-most popular search engine, may have been a foregone conclusion anyway. Besides, if you're not satisfied with Bing, you can manually switch back to Google anyway. The biggest difference would be if Apple's talks with Microsoft go beyond search and reach into some of the iPhone's standard applications.

If you're a Google user, but you couldn't be bothered to switch your browser's search engine, another alternative would be to rely on Google's iPhone app--Bing recently launched an iPhone app as well.

What's Apple's Game Plan Here?

There may be more to Apple's plans than just trying to stick it to Google. Business Week is reporting that Apple has an ongoing "skunk works" project looking at building its own search engine. So Apple may be using Microsoft to slow down Google, while Cupertino develops its own Google-killer. As one anonymous source told Business Week, "Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy . . . Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle."

Microsoft is being used as a pawn? Now that's something you don't hear every day.
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