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Bing on android phones
- Thread starter tommy_ed
- Start date
Pryomancer
Android Enthusiast
Use Google like a normal person.
chrlswltrs
Extreme Android User
pisses me off!
No reason to get made, it is just like any other bloatware on a phone. Get your replacement from the market (google search, voice search, etc), then root and delete bing and the other bloat.
There problem solved.
chrlswltrs
Extreme Android User
Verizon made a deal with bing. On the fascinate Bing is the default search engine, google search is not even installed on it
OfTheDamned
The Friendly Undead
The complaints about it are slightly over dramatized, IMO. It is neither a great or horrible app. It does what it does, but as Chris stated the Google alternatives can easily be downloaded and/or replaced.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
On the Fascinate you could not download Google search, at least not without rooting, so it wasn't that easy sadly.
chrlswltrs
Extreme Android User
I was not aware of that. WOW now that is messed up! Anyways, I like rooting my phones for all the other stuff anyways, but you definitely should not need to root to put Google search on a phone with a Google OS!
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
+1, of course, but common sense flies in the face of the near religious attitudes some have about these things.
Bing's a search utility. Google is a search utility.
At least they didn't give us Jeeves.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
I'd say it's more that that though. It's about choices.
Verizon has a history of cripping their phones, from the Motorola RAZRs to Blackberries to Palm Pre's GPS being disabled. So it's not just a Bing vs Google thing, it's a lot deeper than that.
Your statement makes it sound pretty silly on the surface, but there's a lot more to the story than that.
Funny enough I just ran into an example of this last night while browsing the net: http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/263537-verizon-class-action-lawsuit.html
People want freedom, they own the devices, so why should they be denied choices?
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
The religiosity is what's silly, and what's mostly pointed out in my statement you quoted.
The other portion of it, my implying Google and Bing are fine, each of them in their own right, is not in the argument of what some interpret as what Verizon is doing as an ulterior motive by setting up some devices with Bing rather than Google as their default search engine.
For what it's worth, they're doing a lot less with Bing, at this point, than they and other carriers and manufacturers have done with Google.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
Yes exactly.
In fact people tried side-loading the Google search apk onto the Fascinate and it would not work. So you had to root to be able to change the search widget and install Google search.
Really messed up.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
Bing may be fine, but it's not fine to block Google search altogether unless you root.
Can you imagine the uproar if Android blocked Bing search? There probably would be an anti-trust investigation.
Bottom line is the phones belong to the users. They paid for it. Whether it's silly for them to be religiously devoted to Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc or not, is irrelevant. It's their phone, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it.
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
I use Google all day on my unrooted Fascinate. I've found nothing blocked.
What are you talking about?
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
One of many articles I have read about this: Fascinate Fiasco: Is Verizon Blocking Google Search? -- InformationWeek
How are you using Google? Without the widget?
tommy_ed
Android Expert
yea my annoyance is with the fact that you can't download the google search bar. seems a little ridiculous to me! i'm not sure why google agreed to this. And from what our corporate rep said today, it will be happening pretty frequently on the upcoming android phones. It's not that i'm actually mad about it, it just annoys me 
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
For those members of Church of the Holy Google, here:
Here's your Verizon Fascinate Google search fix (update with even more fixed) | Android Central
Then use the hidden apps feature for the app drawer, heck, you'll be pretty much ridden of Satanic Bing and right with yer maker then.
Here's your Verizon Fascinate Google search fix (update with even more fixed) | Android Central
Then use the hidden apps feature for the app drawer, heck, you'll be pretty much ridden of Satanic Bing and right with yer maker then.
OfTheDamned
The Friendly Undead
Without root the capacitive button will always default to Bing, but the search provider apk can be downloaded and installed on the phone so that the widget is available and working with Google. There is also always Google Voice Search that does the same thing.
Well of course not, you have to have an HTC phone to get Sense.
IOWA
Mr. Logic Pants
Not to mention all the seamless integration is broken, like the Google Voice Search which can open the browser, maps, or other apps, for instance.
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
The long press on the soft search key can't be made to invoke Google, but the screen icon will. You can configure that soft key to go to Google (without root), and you can have all the Google stuff anywhere you want it on your screens.
Search on "google apk" and the device you have. As long as you're using a launcher other than Touch Wiz (great name), such as Launcher Pro or ADW, you can Googlize your phone, de-Bing.. whatever.
Search on "google apk" and the device you have. As long as you're using a launcher other than Touch Wiz (great name
), such as Launcher Pro or ADW, you can Googlize your phone, de-Bing.. whatever.