Microsoft blames Google for the failed Bing deal with Apple. Here's what happened

Previously, there were rumours that Microsoft tried to sell Bing to Apple and for the latter to set Bing as the default search engine on the Safari browser. Now, the recently unsealed documents in Google’s antitrust case against the U.S. Justice Department confirm this.

As per CNBC, Microsoft tried to strike a deal with Apple on several occasions, including in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020, but it never went through.

Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin, CEO of Advertising and Web Services, said that the company offered 100% of Bing’s revenue to Apple, but the proposal was never accepted due to the deal Apple had with Google.

As per reports, Google pays Apple $10 billion annually to keep their search engine as the default on Safari, in addition to a share of the advertising revenue from Bing.

On the other hand, Google, in the unsealed documents, argued that Apple found Google to be a more effective search engine than Bing.

In each instance, Apple took a hard look at the relative quality of Bing versus Google and concluded that Google was the superior default choice for its Safari users.

Besides, it cited that just winning the race for the default search engine on a browser doesn’t suffice. The search engine must keep the users happy.

Where an inferior search engine is set as the default, a large proportion of users switch away. Even when a search engine wins a default, it must compete to keep users happy, and other search engines can
compete to win users away.

Apple, on its part, asserted that Microsoft’s native search engine wasn’t refined and that the company wasn’t heavily invested in the product. Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, said,

Microsoft search quality, their investment in search, everything was not significant at all. And so everything was lower. So the search quality itself wasn’t as good. They weren’t investing at any level comparable to Google or to what Microsoft could invest in. And their advertising organization and how they monetize was not very good either.

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook’s, observation on Bing shared with senior executives has been redacted in the filing.

It’s a known fact that Google is the market leader among all search engines, and none even stands close. As per Statcounter, Google has a 91.47% market share, while Bing is a distant second at 3.42%.

However, in the last year, Bing has witnessed a sizable increase in user base, while that of Google has fallen. This can be attributed to Microsoft’s push for Bing on its native devices. Besides, Edge has significantly improved over the years, prompting users to switch to Bing.

The whole Microsoft vs. Google search engine battle isn’t about to die anytime soon. If anything, it’s going to get a lot more fierce. We will have to wait and watch how things unfold in the coming days!

Which search engine do you find the best? Share your thoughts in the comments section.