The revelation comes amid Google's ongoing antitrust lawsuit, where the tech giant is accused of discouraging competition by paying large tech companies to use its search engine as the default option. Bing, often seen as less relevant, has recently gained attention as Microsoft invested billions to integrate OpenAI's technology with its products.
Key takeaways:
- Microsoft reportedly discussed selling Bing to Apple in 2020, which could have resulted in Google no longer being the default search engine on iPhone.
- The discussions between Microsoft and Apple were mainly exploratory and did not reach any actionable stage.
- Google is currently facing an antitrust case, with the Justice Department arguing that Google's payouts to big tech companies to be the primary search engine are anticompetitive.
- Microsoft has recently invested billions into integrating OpenAI’s tech with its products, increasing attention and traffic to Bing.