According to recent reports, Samsung is contemplating replacing Google with Microsoft Bing as the default search engine on its smartphones and other devices. The news reportedly left Google feeling “panicked” when they learned about it in March.
Samsung is currently a leading brand in the smartphone market, with a product lineup that includes tablets and laptops. These devices come with Google Search set asthe default search engine, for which Google pays Samsung $3 billion annually.
Google partners with device manufacturers like Apple and Samsung, spending vast amounts of money to secure its position as the default search engine, and profits from search ads and other Google products. Google pays Apple $20 billion, with their contract set to expire this year. However, it is anticipated that Apple will likely renew the agreement, given the higher payment from Google.
Neither Samsung nor Google have officially commented on the matter. However, internal sources suggest that Google believes Samsung’s interest in switching to Bing might be due to the recent introduction of Bing Chat, Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbot.
Google is also currently focused on developing its own AI chatbot, Bard, which is in testing and only supports English at this time. The company plans to incorporate an AI chatbot, codenamed Magi, into Google Search in the future.
Google is expected to announce Magi and begin testing at Google I/O 2023. Despite the introduction of Magi, ads will still be present in search results, marking Google’s continued efforts to maintain its traditional search engine model.