Will Apple pick a new default Search Engine in 2015

[Brad]

The Google/Apple search contract that makes Google be the default search in all Safari browsers expires in early 2015. Both Bing and Yahoo are chatting up Apple trying to replace Google.

1. Should Apple switch?
2. Will Apple Switch?
3. Who should they pick?
4. What are the ramifications of picking either B or Y?

More on the subject plus a quick test of the contenders:
http://www.macworld.com.au/blogs/which-search-engine-should-be-crowned-king-of-mobile-safari-133801/#.VHtJC3-9KrU

Personally, I think Apple should ditch Google search. The competition is down to Y and B and what kind of deal they can make. Apple picking Y might give Y the boost it needs to develop their own crawler while waiting for the search deal with Bing to end. Either way these engines need some sort of boost in the war with Google.

Apple won't pick DDG but I suspect DDG is working on their own crawler just in case the day comes that Bing pulls the plug. Apple might be secretly eying DDG for acquisition once it grows more.


Interesting to speculate.

[Rooftop]

I think that they will switch (either Bing or Yahoo).
I think that is a shame for their users, as it will leave them further behind. However they're a loyal bunch and will take what they're given so no loss to Apple.
What they should really do of course is kill Safari, as it is bloody awful.  That isn't going to happen though.

[Brad]

I think they will switch.  I don't see Apple using G any longer than they have to. Nor do they like G data mining info about Apple users.

On mobile it will be a huge shot in the arm for whoever gets picked. Apple will want to be careful that they don't make another king like Yahoo did when it dumped Inktomi for Google as backfill way back when.

[littleman]

User experience wise, do you all think Bing is that much worse than Google?  They seem about on par to me.  On more obscure searches G is ahead, but they seem to hit the end user with more in-you-face advertising than Bing does these days.  I think you could make an argument that Bing is a better user experience for an typical Mac user.

[Rooftop]

User experience wise, do you all think Bing is that much worse than Google?  They seem about on par to me.  On more obscure searches G is ahead, but they seem to hit the end user with more in-you-face advertising than Bing does these days.  I think you could make an argument that Bing is a better user experience for an typical Mac user.

I suppose I have a UK bias here.  I find them particularly poor for UK results - which is probably why they have even less market share over here (around 6% v Google's 89%).

I did try to switch for a week not that long ago.  I lasted less than an hour, so yes I do think it is considerably worse.  The homepage is pretty though.

Here is an interesting slant though:  The search for "UK search engine market share" plays out very differently on the two engines (sorry in advance for digression)

Google:
knowledge card showing google share at 88.87 percent
4 Results that show the uk market share breakdown for various periods
1 showing bing market share
1 showing google market share
1 BBC news article about alternatives to Google
1 SEL article about "Bing it on" campaign
1 econsultancy article about Google market share dropping below 90%

Bing:
1 Result showing market share breakdown
4 news articles about google dropping UK market share (2 mentioning Bing gains in headline)
1 Result showing browser market share worldwide
1 Result showing mobile browser market share worldwide
1 News story about Google search dominance
2 websites about stock market share trading

Bing had 4 total misses out of 10, however it was the apparent bias that I found amusing. In fairness I wonder whether that could be the impact of click throughs.  Presumable Bing users are more likely to click on a pro Bing result for that particular search.    I think that 4/10 total misses is really poor in this day and age though - especially for such a simple query with so many authoritative result to choose from. 

[Brad]

I'm not seeing Bing results as being that bad in the US.  I think the average US Mac user would be satisfied with the first 3 pages of Bing results to common queries, it's when you want to go deep that Bing falls down compared to G. Bing has a pretty clean serp on desktop, compared to Yahoo and G.

Now I have not looked or compared the phone serps for each which is where the action and growth is.