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Apple Siri Defaults To Bing

A new Apple-Bing relationship could mean the start of something sweet for brand marketers. A deal announced Monday with Apple allows Bing to support Siri on iPhone, iPad and iPad touch. Apple's iOS 7 announcement brings Bing Web search integration to Siri, the Cupertino company's voice-search personal assistant. Bing will power Siri's new integrated Web search beginning this fall.

Think of the relationship between Yahoo and Bing where the latter provides the back end, and the former the user experience. Apple will use Microsoft's search index to answer queries it can't quickly answer and will entirely skip the question of whether it should search the Web. Today, Apple's products default to Safari, but this relationship between Apple and Bing opens doors that were previously closed.

The move is part of Apple's iOS 7 release that will allow Siri to search Twitter, Wikipedia, and Bing. The new interface provides options like French and German. Siri can also have a male rather than female voice. Siri also will have a role in car navigation systems with a dozen manufacturers adding iOS to their cars in 2014.

Car manufacturers that have plans to support the new features in iOS 7 include Acura, Chevrolet, Infiniti, Ferrari, Jaguar, Kia, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Volvo.

The big question here is whether Bing comes along with. Beyond the voice-search integration, iOS 7 comes with full multitasking across all apps, and Control Center allowing users to swipe up from the bottom of the device to play a song or adjust phone settings like brightness. Also, will Apple allow Bing to power ads and support the integration of Bing Maps?


"Red Bitten Apple" photo from Shutterstock.

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