19 April 2023 , 12:29
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South Korean electronics giant Samsung might be ditching its longtime partner Google and defecting to Microsoft's Bing.
Google has been the undisputed king of search engines since its launch back in 1998 and has grown into the giant it is today, handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day and becoming the most visited website in the world.
While Windows OS creators Microsoft's search engine Bing has always been one step behind the big G, that may be about to change thanks to Samsung.
The recent arms race in AI, bought about by chatbots like Chat GPT has disrupted the industry, leaving the tech behemoths dashing to incorporate advanced AI into their software.
Samsung President & Head of Mobile Communications Business TM Roh (L) and Google Senior Vice President of Platforms & Ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer (R)In a blog post in March Microsoft confirmed that Bing will be running on OpenAI’s GPT-4 which will help enhance its search functionality and allow more human-like conversational answers, instead of a list of links ranked by relevance.
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Google has also been working hard on their own experimental AI, Bard, while also impressive doesn't yet feel as sophisticated as Chatbot GPT.
It may not seem important, but with over 60% of all internet searches coming from mobile devices, the default search engines people have at their fingertips are big business to companies like Google and Microsoft and a huge source of information for these companies.
Search engines can be easily changed with your smartphone's software but most users don't bother to shift from the default or the search engine they are most familiar with, usually Google.
While Apple is still in the lead as the most popular mobile device, it's only a slight lead according to Oberlo smartphone statistics 27.63%. while Samsung follows closely at 27.1%, making them the most dominant force in the Android market.
But with other Android brands like OnePlus, OPPO, and more recently Nothing pushing their way into this incredibly competitive market Samsung will be looking for any edge to stand out over its competitors which could explain its interest in Bing.
A customer tries out the newly launched flagship Galaxy S23 series phone at Samsung's flagship store in Shanghai, China, February 10, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)According to The New York Times, Google was "shocked" and in a "panic" at the possible threat posed by Samsung jumping ship to Microsoft, as Google earns an estimated £2.4 billion in annual revenue in their partnership with Samsung.
Apple attempted to shift to using Bing for Siri web search results back in 2017 but has since returned to Google and much like Samsung's contract this is also to be renegotiated later this year and if both Samsung and Apple leave Google it could be a massive blow that the tech giant may struggle to recover from
If Bing becomes the new standard search engine for the most popular Android device on the market, this could have a significant impact on not just Google but the landscape of the internet.
Companies would need to adapt to new algorithms and search parameters to avoid being buried to allow them to stay dominant in search results and remain seen and relevant, after all, who looks past the first page of results?