The “Google” button that appears on the soft keyboards of existing iPhones when conducting a Web search has been changed to simply read “Search” in the beta of iPhone OS 4, according to iLounge. The question now which demands attention is that will Apple dump Google from mobile search? The change was already made in iPhone OS 3.2 for the iPad. In the current iPhone OS 3.1.3, using Safari’s search function offers a blue “Google” button in the bottom right corner of the touchscreen keyboard. The iPhone OS 4 without “Google” will appear when the software upgrade is released this summer.
Google is still the world’s number one search engine by a wide margin and still eliminating it from Safari’s search function includes huge risk. But what may be the possible reason behind such a decision? One reason can be that iPhone OS 4 is said to have search engine options of Google, Yahoo and Bing, and so Apple wants to have a universal button that reads “search” no matter what engine the user chooses to use. Other possibilities could be that Apple and Google have not agreed on financial agreements for Google to be the default search in OS 4 yet and they want Google to know that they’ll give default search to the highest bidder. The third possibility can be that keeping in mind Apple’s creativeness and innovations, Apple might be launching its own search engine.
The iPhone still uses Google Maps as the source for its Maps app data and has a prominently featured YouTube client that was just recently upgraded for the iPad. Courting Microsoft to spite Google is also risky for Apple, as Microsoft hopes to take on the iPhone more directly with Windows Phone 7. The small change to iPhone search could serve as more evidence to support claims from earlier this year that Apple and Microsoft have been in talks to make Bing the default search engine for the iPhone. Currently, searches conducted through the Safari Web browser go through Google by default, though Yahoo can also be selected.
Tags: google, Iphone, iphone 4, iphone vs google, keyboards, safari, search