Apple ditches Bing for Google on Siri and Spotlight

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Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Siri is switching to Google.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple just gave Microsoft’s search engine Bing a huge blow today by replacing it with Google on iOS and macOS.

The company previously used Bing search results as the default when users made a search query via Siri on iPhones or from Spotlight on Macs. Bing will still be around in some capacity, but it appears that the company has given in and turned back to using Google.

Now when you ask Siri a question and it doesn’t know the answer, instead of using Bing’s search results it’ll come back with Google’s. The same will happen on Spotlight in Mac.

Goodbye Bing, Hello Google

Apple already uses Google search results as the default in Safari. That’s because Google pays billions to make it that way. Apple says the change is all about maintaining consistency across the platform.

“Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” said Apple in a statement given to TechCrunch. “We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible.”

Bing will still be used for web image search results. That makes a bit of sense because it’s one of the few areas that Bing performs better at than Google. Video searches will now come directly through YouTube though. One of the benefits of searching through Siri is the search is anonymized until you click on the ‘show Google results’ link.

Microsoft released the following statement regarding the change:

“We value our relationship with Apple and look forward to continuing to partner with them in many ways, including on Bing Image Search in Siri, to provide the best experience possible for our customers. Bing has grown every year since its launch, now powering over a third of all the PC search volume in the U.S., and continues to grow worldwide. It also powers the search experiences of many other partners, including Yahoo (Verizon), AOL and Amazon, as well as the multi-lingual abilities of Twitter. As we move forward, given our work to advance the field of AI, we’re confident that Bing will be at the forefront of providing a more intelligent search experience for our customers and partners.”

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