Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had his day in court today, where he answered for Bing's failure to compete with Google search. In his view, Apple's deal with Google Search protects Safari from being killed off by Chrome.
The Verge's David Pearce gives us insight in Microsoft CEO's testimony US government case against Google. Nadella's argument is that Apple's deal with Google Search is not just about money.
If Microsoft gave Apple $15 billion a year to make Bing Safari's default search engine Google could use YouTube and Gmail to aggressively promote Chrome to Safari users, Nadella argues. However, Microsoft knows it needs users to make Bing a reality. Nadella argues that Microsoft engineers could improve search results if more people simply used Bing. The idea is that more search queries will provide Microsoft with more data needed to improve Bing. This is Nadella's “query flow”. either way, the loop argument.
Microsoft's CEO claims that simply having more user data is so important to Bing that the company was willing to drop Bing branding from Apple's search results.
Apple did just that. actually used to connect Bing search results in places outside of Safari. For example, Bing used to be the default for searching online images through Spotlight.
Bing certainly won't be Apple's only search engine option. He seems to have the talent and technology to go his own way if he wanted to. Why worry about Bing support in Nadella's scenario?
Read more
- Bloomberg: Apple holds talks with Microsoft about acquiring Bing in 2020.
- Apple makes more profit from the existence of Bing than from Bing, Microsoft chief executive claims.
- Bing user data exposed, including location, search terms, visits sites
