With iOS 7, Siri Drops Google For Bing, Also Gains Twitter Search

 Apple’s new iOS seven mobile software formally extended nowadays, and with it, the Siri assistant is finally out of beta. the foremost important amendment to Siri is arguably that it now not faucets into Google for searches. for sure, a touch upon Microsoft currently makes Bing the default in Siri. Twitter conjointly gets a replacement place among the tool.

Supporting Role, Not leading Role, For Bing
After last year’s disaster of iOS half dozen change from Google Maps to Apple’s own maps, Apple would possibly maybe be downplaying this latest Google swap-out. If you visit the Siri page at Apple, there’s no mention of Bing being employed, whereas Yelp and WolframAlpha, each long-time Siri information partners, get shoutouts:

 Of course, one reason Bing doesn’t have a prima role is that Siri has continuing to evolve into a tool that tries to not search the net, if it will facilitate it. that very same Siri page I’ve noted on top of additionally has screenshots concerning however Siri may be accustomed do a spread of searches or tasks. associate example of exploitation it to look the net is notably absent. This will seem, however, on the assistance screen inside Siri that lists varied things it will do. Way, approach down on the list:

Not True Conversational Search

In very quick testing, I found that Siri still responded with facts drawn from WolframAlpha, as I was expecting and as it did before. For example, Siri knows who the president of the United States is.

If you try to go beyond that, to have a conversational search experience in the way that Google Conversational Search allows, Siri doesn’t seem up to that particular challenge. For instance, it doesn’t know that “who’s his wife” means it should reference the previous person — Barack Obama — to understand the “who” in the query:

The second query, unable to figure out a fact to draw from WolframAlpha, defaults to a web search made via Bing.

Some Results By Bing, If You Know Where To Look

Of course, to know it’s via Bing, you have to scroll way down to the bottom of the results:

That’s very little credit, but then again, it’s more credit than Google got — which was nothing.

Bing’s Results, But You Stay In Siri

On the flipside, a web search actually took you to Google in iOS 6, whereas in iOS 7, you stay within Siri (and apparently, don’t see any of Bing’s ads):

Above, a search for “News about Syria” through Siri in iOS 6 is shown on the left. It produces the Siri box, which responds that it will check the web (and it means Google), then takes you to Google search results.

On the right, in iOS 7, the results from Bing are displayed directly within Siri. You never go to Bing, nor do you get the Bing branding unless you scroll to the very bottom, as noted. As said, I’m pretty sure ads from Bing also don’t display.

Getting To Google Or Yahoo Through Siri

You can’t change Siri from using Bing by default (or change any of the other data sources it uses), but you can get it to use Google on a case-by-case basis. Just say “Google” followed by whatever you want to search for:

That will send your query to Google, and bring up results within Safari. You can do the same thing for Yahoo, as well. Just say “Yahoo” followed by your search.

Safari Stays With Google, But Bing Asks You To Switch

In Safari, whatever default you had before (chances are, it was Google) appears to be retained, which was expected. That’s due to the super-secret deal between Google and Apple that puts Google as the default in Safari, and the new release of iOS 7 doesn’t change that. Not that Bing doesn’t try.

Indeed, that seems to be one of the perks that Bing gets out of its deal with Apple, the ability to suggest you change that default. I got this after using Siri on my iPhone 5, then clicking on a Bing-provided result that launched Safari:

“Do you want to change your search engine to Bing?” the pop-up box asks. I didn’t see this happen on my iPad after the upgrade, however. I’m not sure why there’s that inconsistency.

Siri Does Twitter Search

Another major change to Siri is that Twitter Search is now integrated. It’s triggered apparently in two major ways. The most consistent experience is to say “search Twitter” followed by what you’re seeking, such as “search twitter for ios 7,” as shown below:

You can also ask Siri a question involving the word “saying,” which may cause it to check Twitter. Apple demoed this during its iOS 7 preview earlier this year. But it doesn’t always work. For example, a search for “search twitter for what are people saying about new girl” came back with the odd response of “I don’t know the rating for girl,” as shown below:

At least Siri did manage to work for “what is Zooey Deschanel saying,” the star of “New Girl” and one-time Siri spokesperson, though her tweets didn’t actually come first:

As for “what are people saying about iOS 7,” Apple screws things up, because it has apparently hard-coded a response that only Apple knows best for questions like that:

Other jokey responses remain hard-coded into the system as before in iOS 6, such as when you ask about the best operating system, smartphone or what “Google Now” is:

 Siri Vs. The Google Search App: Slower, Less Consistent

We’ll be swing Siri in an exceedingly recent check against the Google Search app, to examine however it fares. however many fast tests confirm what I found last year. It’s slower and fewer consistent.

Siri will 2 things. It’s a virtual assistant, ready to move together with your phone to try to to things like send tweets or build calendar appointments. It’s additionally a quest tool. That’s wherever it faces off against the Google Search App, and not thus well. many examples, a number of that Siri won:

    “Who is that the president of the u.  s.,” the Google Search app responded in concerning 5 seconds, whereas Siri took concerning 9.
    “What’s the weather like,” Siri took concerning fifteen seconds against Google’s 5, tho\' once I perennial this, Siri was even as quick.
    “Where ought to i\'m going to eat,” Siri beat Google by a few second and had much more helpful results than Google’s net listings.
    “Breaking dangerous episode guide,” furthermore as “Mad Men episode guide,” Siri simply responded with “I’m sorry” whereas Google gave net listings in concerning 3 seconds.
    “How many folks sleep in Cape Code” with Siri took 5 seconds and simply gave net listings, whereas Google gave Associate in Nursing actual answer in 3
    “Movies in Newport Beach” came up with nice listings from each in concerning 3 seconds
    “Prices on videodisk players” caused Siri to mention it couldn’t realize any and asked if I wished to look the web; Google, within the same few seconds, did that search and gave Maine costs.

The Bottom Line For shoppers, Google & Bing

What’s all this mean for consumers? likelihood is, they won’t notice the modification from Google to Bing. Last year’s “Mapgate” is unlikely to become this year’s “Binggate.” The results area unit concerning constant. Rather, i believe if they’re sad with responses, they’ll simply assume that’s as a result of Siri is Associate in Nursing imperfect tool, attempting to guess on wherever to urge the proper answers and not continually obtaining that right.

That’s additionally the deeper issue. once Siri 1st appeared 2 years agone, some expected it\'d revolutionize the approach we tend to search. To date, that also hasn’t appeared to happen. There’s little question that folks speak plenty of searches. however if you can’t rely upon a replacement tool to systematically return with the proper answers, you’re possible to stay with one that will — that for several, are going to be Google.

As for Google, this is often getting to withdraw slightly traffic and probably a number of the revenue that it earns from Apple. however Google’s identified this has been coming back for a few time, still has the vital campaign deal and contains a pretty spectacular search app of its own out currently for iOS, a modification from last year.

As for Bing, it boots Google out from Siri in exchange for maybe comparatively very little revenue and much no stigmatization. however it gets a “try-out” with Apple to probably take over campaign search within the future. maybe this is often Bing’s serious “prove yourself” moment.