Inappropriate search results for the query “Annie Lennox’s first band” were one of the reasons Apple rejected an approach from Microsoft to use the Bing search engine as the default in its Safari browser, making Bing more We also scrapped the idea of a joint venture to make it better. There is even a chance to buy the search engine outright.
These claims were revealed in a filing last Friday. [PDF] Google’s antitrust lawsuit against the U.S. government.
The filing includes a reference to Annie Lennox in testimony from John Gianandrea, Apple’s vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. Gianandrea said that although Lennox is best known for her time with The Eurythmics and subsequent solo career, she clearly appreciated that her breakthrough came as a singer with The Tourists. In 1979, the band covered Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want To Be With You,” which reached number four on the UK Singles Chart.
In 2018, Gianandrea used Bing to research singers’ careers. This is because Microsoft approached Apple in hopes of replacing Google as Safari’s default search engine. When he asked Bing to name Lennox’s first band, all that came up was Eurythmics.
Gianandrea pointed to that, to Bing’s lack of local language coverage in markets Apple is interested in, and to the fact that the two tech giants previously discussed their search preferences in 2015 and 2016. I’m also unimpressed by the lack of progress Microsoft has made in improving its search engine since we spoke.
In a meeting with Redmond, Gianandrea said that Microsoft acknowledged Bing’s shortcomings, saying, “I think the reason why they laid out in detail what they weren’t doing was probably because they said, “If we invest in this together, I think it was to motivate us and think, “We can do something like this.”
Gianandrea’s testimony, recorded in the filing, also stated that “Microsoft was willing to sell Bing, but they would not do that if it were a strategic asset.”
The filing is part of Google’s defense in an antitrust lawsuit that claims the company ignored competition laws to build its dominance in the U.S. search market.
The Apple anecdote is important because it explains how iGiant tested Google and Bing and rejected the latter because it provided inferior results and monetization opportunities for Apple. Even after Microsoft promised to improve Bing in 2015 and 2016, the search engine still had flaws in 2018 that Apple can’t excuse, the filing says.
The filings show that from 2014 to 2017, Mozilla owned Yahoo.! Added to Firefox’s default search engine, provided it improves the quality of search results.Yahoo! When that didn’t happen, Mozilla ended the deal. Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has at times preferred to funnel new sources of funding to investors rather than improve its own services, according to filings.
The gist of the filing is that while Google has invested heavily in making its search service great, its competitors have never succeeded in trying to match it. It means being a tireless innovator, not a monopolist. The filing argues that the presence of Google Search on Android and Chrome does not prevent competition.
Evidence for that claim, according to the filing, is that Apple and others have continued to do business with Google because there were no better options in the United States.
Advertisers also agree that Google’s service is superior, the filing alleges.
The web giant is clearly hoping this filing will make its sweet dreams of acquittal come true, but who would disagree?
And even if Google loses, Google wins. As Eurythmics wrote, “Everyone is looking for something” – and these days, that means using a search engine. ®