Rumors have been floating recently about Samsung potentially replacing Google as the default search engine in its in-house browser app with Bing. This was poised to happen in time for the release of the Galaxy S24 and was met with some mixed reactions. However, a new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that the change is no longer taking place, news that is sure to please Google.
From what we’ve gathered, the possible switch from Google to Bing was put on hold due to concerns over the disruption it will cause amongst users and the implications it can have on the relationship between Samsung and Google. Talking about the Bing AI features that could have attracted Samsung to switch, it still became quite an unlikely decision. Google currently pays Apple to use its search engine as the default provider for Safari, although it makes billions of US dollar in search ad revenues from both iOS and Samsung devices.
Google has since plugged its own chatbot into various of its products, including the main search engine itself, in an attempt to better compete with Microsoft’s intelligent chatbot ChatGPT. In the near future, this could mean that people will be spending less time directly searching the web with a browser, and more time using a chatbot to get the needed information. This could potentially have an impact on advertising revenues for both companies.
With the initial plan for switching having been shelved for now, it still remains to be seen what will happen in regard to this topic. However, Samsung has stated that it isn’t completely closing the door to the Bing switch, indicating that Google still needs to do some work. OpenAI and ChatGPT, which are both AI technologies responsible for this momentous shift, have already hugely changed the way technology is used today. It won’t come as a surprise if future years continue to bring more significant and beneficial changes in the search engine sector and beyond.
