It seems that some people were a little more than upset over the latest rumor that Verizon was dropping Google Search from future Android handsets. You can breathe a little easier now knowing that Verizon has simply stated that the rumor is “not true.”
Every carrier has money thrown at them by manufacturers, that’s how it goes. In response to this Bing fiasco, Verizon stated:
“…that is not true. We have a relationship with Microsoft and Bing is the search engine on our multi-media phones but we have never said it would be exclusive on all of our devices.â€
This Bing drama started over the Samsung Fascinate, which is Verizon’s Galaxy S variant. The Fascinate features a Bing search bar widget instead of the standard Google widget that is found on any other Android devices. The Droid Guy did some investigating and found that the only feature unavailable to the Fascinate was Google Search, which is not found in the Android Market. You’re not able to side load the application, either.
When Verizon made this statement, you’ll notice that they have stated that “Bing is the search engine on our multi-media phones,” so they are considering the Android powered Fascinate to be a multi-media phone, therefore The Droid Guy isn’t completely wrong. Verizon has also stated that once the Fascinate receives Android 2.2, the device will be able to download Google’s “Voice Search” which should bring us a good search engine. Why would Verizon feel the need to remove certain Google features off an Android phone anyway?
Via: Engadget
