Verizon Wireless pushing Bing as the only search option?

By on Dec 17, 2009 at 7:26 PM
General December 17, 2009

Bing-BlackBerry-Options

Surely you don’t think RIM has that kind of control over their own smartphones (they bend over backwards for their carrier partners). That leaves us to assume that Verizon Wireless has struck a deal with Microsoft’s Bing search engine to be the search engine of choice on their BlackBerry products. That’s fine and dandy (get that money, boo boo), but what’s really upsetting to most users is that there isn’t an option to change to another provider. No, we’re not kidding, you can not switch to Google or Wikipedia like you used to be able to.

We’ve reached out to Verizon and are waiting to hear back. In the meantime, what do you guys think?

UPDATE: Verizon Wireless told us, “The default to our BlackBerry devices is now bing!” and that if you’d like to use another search provider, you can “go to web – bookmark, make favorite, download. Also – you can to Appworld and download Google quicksearch client for free and move it from the Downloads folder to have a link on the home screen.”

Tags:
, , , , , ,
149 Comments

Related Articles

  • V Delorme

    To take away choice are the first steps toward fascism.

  • Brad M

    This is simply outrages first of all. Verizon provides a service for my using of MY BlackBerry not there BlackBerry. Well hopefully no one will sit back and just take this lying down all you have to do is simply flood their call centers with phone calls in protest and they will break because every phone call costs them some big dollars and enough of them will get their attention really quick.

    May I add the web browser is BlackBerry’s why should they be able to force us to use one search engine? I pay $50 dollars a month for unlimited data service and now they are going to make it hard and inconvenient to get around them forcing their preferences not mine mind you!!!!!!

    This really makes me angry :

  • Marc C

    It’s outrageous. The Bing search on the Storm 2 is much slower then Google. Very inappropriate behavior that Verizon displays here and (I’m not an expert here) but this isn’t this illegal and a breach of contract with its customers? I hope someone sues the heck out of Verizon on behalf of all us. It’s too bad that RIM cuts deals with these wireless carriers (another stupid action in my mind) if it comes to exclusivity of Blackberry devices. I’m curious to find out if this is a breach of contract that will allow me to walk away from my contract. In that case I might get my Storm 2 unlocked and perhaps switch to AT&T. Anyone knows?

  • Mark

    are there any lawyers out there that can advise wheter or not this constitutes a breach of contract? if so, i would consider moving to another carrier becase of this….

  • HG

    Yes I wonder if the FCC can also send a letter to Verizon.

  • HG

    By the way this sounds like when Microsoft got in trouble a few years ago when they tried to push Internet Explorer and not give other browsers a chance. I think Verizon likes losing money because they might get in trouble and have to pay a fine. The only bad thing is that when they pay the millions we the customers will eventually have to pay, because they will charge us more money for text, data, etc…

  • http://www.shameonyouverizonwireless.com Jeffrey

    Hey BGR! I’ve set up a website and petition to help get Verizon’s attention concerning this issue. It’s still a work in progress, but I’d love to have you check it out and let me know what you think…

    If you’d like to help get Google (and the other search engine options) back on Verizon, please visit:

    http://www.shameonyouverizonwireless.com

    Again, feel free to give me feedback and suggestions! We can do this!

    You can also follow the cause at twitter.com/shameonyouvzw

    Spread the word!

    -Jeffrey
    __________________
    http://www.jdriel.com
    twitter.com/jdriel
    facebook.com/jdriel

  • Billy Banks

    If I had a blackberry I would cancel my contract.

  • http://www.louisvillecolorado-realestate.com Andrea

    Bing is nowhere near as good as Google. It would be stupid for RIM to do this.

1 … 3 4 5
blog comments powered by Disqus