Winds of panic at Google. The Mountain View giant had learned some news in March that didn’t suit him at all. Samsung is considering dropping Google, the default search engine for its smartphones. To replace it, the Korean manufacturer, the world’s largest seller of Android smartphones, had thought of the Microsoft search engine.
Potential big loss for Google
If nothing goes wrong at the moment, this change in the default search engine on Samsung smartphones, if proven, could cause Google to lose out in a big way. Because the contract signed by the Korean manufacturer to use the Google search engine by default on its devices brings no less than $ 3 billion to the American company. Unfortunately, it took Google a long time to get into the AI race, and the serious leadership that Microsoft took with Bing is certainly no stranger to Samsung’s thinking. If Bing had an image of a second-tier search engine for a long time, Microsoft’s recent changes have made it more attractive very quickly.
In February, the integration of ChatGPT into Bing enabled Microsoft to make its search engine more popular than ever (https://www.01net.com/actualites/microsoft-bing-plus-populaire-amais-depuis-integration- chatgpt. html ). Bing has passed the milestone of 100 million users, which is a commendable score, but still far below Google, which still has 10 times more. But Bing has also benefited from the arrival of a new feature, the Bing Image Creator, an image creation module based on Dall-E’s generative AI model.
A change that is hard to achieve for Samsung
Unfortunately for Samsung, changing the default search engine on its devices can be more complicated than expected. In fact, as Andreas Proschofsky, Austrian journalist from DerStandard points out, manufacturers who want to be able to integrate Android into their devices must sign a specific agreement in order to be able to use the Play Store and other Google apps. This agreement also provides for a number of rules, including the obligation to use the Google search engine by default.
It’s amazing how many news sites, based on original reporting, have gone before @employeeNow, I’ve reported that Samsung is considering dropping Google as the default search engine and not *one* of them begs the question if this is even possible. it’s not. 🧵
—Andreas Brochowski (@suka_hiroaki) April 17, 2023
So it’s hard to imagine Samsung drawing a line below the Play Store, Gmail, or even Google Maps to integrate Bing instead of Google on its devices. Moreover, for several years now, regulatory services for many markets, in Europe and India, for example, have pushed Google to allow users to choose the search engine. Mountain View, which was already condemned by the European Commission in 2018 for abuse of a dominant position, had to comply with European regulations. When an Android smartphone is first configured, users are presented with a screen that allows them to select the search engine of their choice. And if Google originally offered only three alternatives, then the Californian company quickly decided to offer others. In Europe, it is now possible to choose from dozens of default search engines on Android.
Google doubles its AI capabilities
Even if the risk of being replaced by Bing is lower, Google has no other choice but to work hard to climb the slope in the face of competition that has surprised it a bit. Realizing that the growing popularity of Bing isn’t helping its business, the Californian company has begun working on new AI-powered features to integrate into its existing search engine. Magi is the codename for this project, and it will offer a more personalized user experience and, like Bing, could include a chat mode. In the meantime, we’ll no doubt have to wait for the annual Google I/O conference in hopes that, perhaps, Google will lift the veil on new AI-powered features in its search engine.
