CNBC reports that, in 2018, Microsoft offered to sell Apple its Bing search engine or start a Bing joint venture, Google said in a newly unsealed filing.
Apple’s Eddy Cue said Microsoft had search-quality issues and wasn’t investing as much as Google, according to the filing. Google is trying to prove that it doesn’t have a monopoly on the search engine market.
In 2021, Google spent more than $26 billion to keep its search engine the default search engine on Apple devices. However, in the filing earlier this month, Google argued that Microsoft pitched Apple in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020 about making Bing the default in Apple’s Safari web browser, but each time, Apple said no, citing quality issues with Bing.
Rumors have it that Apple is working on an online search engine to rival Google as part of its efforts to beef up Spotlight’s search features and potentially deal with a monopoly ruling against Google.
In October 2022 MacRumors said Apple’s search team is believed to contain at least 200 employees and powers the technology behind Spotlight, Siri Suggestions, and answers provided by Siri. However, the tech giant is still at least four years away from launching a replacement to Google search, according to The Information.
Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
