Google Comes to WinPhone 7 As an App, Not an Option
Posted in: Google, Microsoft, Phones, search, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, Wp7
Windows Phone 7 lets you make Google searches, but only through a back door.
Google’s free Search app for WP7 is available today, according to the Google Mobile team. “Just search the Marketplace for ‘Google Search,’ download, pin to Start, and the power of Google Search is only a click away.”
“Search, download, pin to Start” — doesn’t that seem a little complicated just to load a search engine on your phone?
A distinguishing feature of Windows Phone 7 handsets is their three dedicated hardware buttons. The Windows logo goes home, the left-arrow button goes back, and the magnifying-glass “search” button opens up Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.
That button is permanently tied to Bing. There appears to be no way to change it. (An anti-trust violation? Not likely, unless WP7 corners the smartphone market.)
On the iPhone or Blackberry, or nearly every web browser on the desktop, you can pick your default search engine. You can’t do that with Windows Phone 7. On the Microsoft smartphone, you get Microsoft search.
Now, Bing has a lot going for it; it works very well on WP7, and I think Microsoft is onto something by putting search front-and-center on smartphones. The hardware button is usefully contextual, too: If you’re in the Marketplace, it searches the Marketplace; if you’re in Outlook, it searches your inbox, etc. That’s handy, and exactly the kind of behavior you’d hope for.
But that doesn’t change the fact that hardwiring Bing makes Windows Phone 7 much more closed than most other smartphone platforms.
Considering the close ties between internet search, ad revenue and content-sharing with partners like Facebook, the fact that Microsoft is driving nearly all of its mobile search through Bing is no accident.
It’s a feature, but it’s also a problem.
See Also:
- Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic
- Microsoft Announces First Windows Phone 7 Handsets
- Windows Phone 7 Hands-On With LG Quantum, Samsung Focus, HTC …
- Windows Phone 7 Is the Real Facebook Phone
- Samsung's Windows Phone 7 Packs Intuitive, Visual Punch
- Microsoft Blends Zune Media, Xbox Live Into New Phone OS
- Curious Ask: “Will Windows Phone 7 Have Apps For That?”
- Bing Friends Facebook
- Microsoft Adds OpenStreetMap Layer to Bing Maps
- Bing Will Add Video, Animation to Homepage
- Firefox 4 Adds Bing to List of Search Engines
