Bing to Become the iPhone's Default Search Engine?

The idea may sound surprising, but it shows how deep the ongoing battle between Google and Apple (which started after the Google Voice iPhone application was barred entry into the iTunes App Store) has become.

But would Apple be hurting itself by forcing the less popular Bing on its customers, and exactly how far would an Apple-Microsoft deal go? Here are the 5 questions that come to mind:

First Bing search, but what's next?

The iPhone doesn't just use Google as the default search engine for its browser, but also comes with default applications for Google services such as YouTube and Google Maps. Microsoft would be hard pressed to come up with a competitor to YouTube since it recently shut down its Soapbox video site, but Maps is another matter. Last month, Microsoft launched improvements to Bing Maps including Streetside, which is similar to Google Street View, as well as extra layers of data like weather, Wikipedia entries and "applications" for traffic and local information.

If Apple is doing a search deal with Microsoft, could it mean a deal for Maps and other services as well?


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