Microsoft told Mashable that its Bing
search engine will be the default on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD‘s web browser.
Amazon also confirmed it.
The deal between the two companies came
together recently. Adam Sohn, general manager of communications and influencer
marketing at Bing, said the “last bits” of the deal were finalized only today.
Sohn said Bing would be the “initial default” search engine on the Kindle Fire
HD and new Kindle Fire tablets. He couldn’t confirm if the terms of the deal
also include Amazon’s E Ink readers.
Users will be able to change the default to
another search engine such as Google or Yahoo.
The site Ubergizmo first reported that Bing
was the default browser on the Kindle Fire HD, based on some hands-on time with
the device at Amazon’s press event, where Jeff Bezos unveiled the new tablets.
It was subsequently confirmed by Amazon to some sites, including Ars Technica
as well as Mashable.
Amazon is Microsoft’s second major partner
in the mobile arena. The first was RIM — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer paid a visit
to BlackBerry World in spring 2011 to announce that Bing would power search and
maps on BlackBerry phones going forward.
Bing has been slowly gaining market share
in the search engine wars. Although the space is dominated by Google, Bing now
accounts for 15.6% of online search, not including the share from its Yahoo
partnership, according to comScore (Google’s share, for comparison, is 66.8%).
Its recent “Bing It On” campaign aims to give searchers a “taste test” between
Bing and Google results, claiming users prefer Bing results two to one over
Google’s.
However, Bing has been a financial
albatross for Microsoft. The company has taken big losses in its online
services division because of the service.
What do you think of the choice of Bing as
the default search engine on Amazon’s tablets? Share your thoughts in the
comments.
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