Apple Replaces Bing with Google for Siri and Spotlight

The American tech giant, Apple Inc., is switching the default provider of its web search results for Siri on iOS and Spotlight on the Mac to Google from Microsoft’s Bing. The switch has already begun to roll out to iPhone and Mac users. Now, if you ask Siri to search something on the internet, you will get Google results instead of Bing.

Siri is an intelligent assistant that is part of Apple’s iOS. It uses voice questions and a natural language user interface to answer queries, make recommendations, etc. while Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple’s MacOS and iOS operating systems.

For the average user, that means when Siri doesn’t know the answer directly and searches the web it will provide top Google results as well as videos. Siri will use Google’s Search API, which means it will have access to ranked search results and the Knowledge Graph, the AI-powered system Google uses to provide high-quality information above search result links, according to a report.

However, Apple is keeping Bing as the default search engine for images in both Siri and Spotlight on Mac, and YouTube will continue to handle video searches.

Bing has had more than solid image results for some time now, so that makes some sense.

Apple’s web Safari on Mac and iOS already use Google search as the default provider. This is because of the deal between Apple and Google years back then, according to a report.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company values the relationship with Apple and looks forward to continuing to partner with the iPhone maker in many ways, including on Bing Image Search in Siri, to provide the best experience possible for 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,” the spokesperson added.

Given Microsoft’s work to advance the field of artificial intelligence, the company was confident that Bing would be at the forefront of providing a more intelligent search experience for its customers and partners, the report said.

“Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search inside iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple said in a statement.

“We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience as possible.”

Apple has seemingly timed the change with the release of MacOS High Sierra, instead of with the release of iOS 11 last week. The latest move should help improve search results when Siri happens to have no answer to give to your question.

Bing has long lagged behind Google in the market share because 81% of global searches are done through Google, compared to Bing’s 7%.

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