Siri, Apple's digital assistant technology exclusive to the iPhone 4S, currently accounts for nearly 25 percent of all search queries conducted through the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine. According to The New York Times:

Less than three years ago, Dr. Wolfram created a new kind of search engine, called Wolfram Alpha . Unlike Google or Microsoft’s Bing, Wolfram Alpha does not forage the Web. It culls its own painstakingly curated database to find answers. [...] the technology has come a long way, including delivering many answers for Siri, the question-answering personal assistant in the Apple iPhone 4S.

Originally geared towards math and science queries, Wolfram Alpha has expanded functionality to cover tasks like unit conversions, statistical data aggregation, and consumer-oriented activies such as displaying local show times or calculating distances. This has made it far more useful to mainstream consumers -- the kind likely to have an iPhone 4S and Siri.

Apple sold over 37 million iPhones last quarter and the iPhone 4S took the top spot in terms of smartphone popularity, so it's no surprise that a full quarter of searches on the service are from Apple's digital assistant. And with smartphone adoption hitting massive growth -- paired with speculation that Apple has plans to bring Siri to future iOS devices -- it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to imagine Wolfram working overtime just to provide curated results for Apple products.

Source: NYT

Bing for iPad has just received an update and added in a few new features. Bing is Microsoft’s alternative search engine) or decision engine as Microsoft likes to call it). The new features, especially the "lasso" for text selection, looks intriguing.

This new version introduces several user experience updates and a patented gesture based way to make searching easier with *lasso*. Simply lasso a word or phrase with your finger to do a search instead of copying and pasting into the search box. Search the way it was meant for the iPad.

I have never actually tried Bing myself but I would like to after seeing it in the video, which you can see after the break. Unfortunately Microsoft, for whatever crazy reason, hasn't made it available outside the United States...

[Free – iTunes link]

Microsoft has released Bing for iPad in the US App Store. Based on their search knowledge engine of the same name, it aims to do more than a web app alone could achieve:

Experience search that is truly designed for the iPad. Bing for iPad is here.

Bing is a decision engine that’s been designed to work beautifully with your iPad. Bing for iPad brings you closer to what you’re looking for by delivering a visually rich, touch-enabled way to search and browse news, movies, Bing homepage images, local businesses, popular searches and much more.

• Swipe through our touch enabled movie listings, news articles, trending topics, local businesses and other rich, immersive search results.
• Stay current with the latest news, traffic, weather, stock quotes, movies and popular searches from the main screen.
• Bing Local and Map integration to help you find the places you are looking for from directions with real-time tracking to immersive road, traffic, aerial and “bird’s eye” views.
• Follow the latest news and trending topics with beautifully iPad optimized results with rich images and magazine inspired layouts.
• Tell Bing what you are searching for with voice activated search.
• Wonderful touch friendly, grid view of image searches, with source site details and full page preview.
• Easily navigate between Bing results and websites as Bing frames the site to make it easy to return the search or to launch a new one.

Except of course for iPad users outside the US, where Bing.com remains accessible but where, for some reason, Microsoft thinks Bing apps should not be. If anyone in the US tries it out, let us know how it works for you. If anyone outside the US knows of a good reasons it's not available, please enlighten us!

[Free - iTunes link]

New to iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and trying to figure out how to change the default search engine to something other than Google? For many users Google is synonymous with web search but if you prefer Yahoo! or Microsoft Bing, it's an easy change to make. And we'll show you how after the break!

If you want to change your default search engine from Google to Yahoo! or Bing, here's what to do:

• From the home screen, tap on the Settings app
• Tap on Safari.
• Tap on Search Engine.
• Select the new Search Engine.

Once you quit settings, your selection will remain the default Search Engine until you change it again.

Bonus Tip: Just because you set one search engine as default for the search field doesn't mean you can't use others. Just enter their URL (google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com, etc.) in Safari and you can use any one you wish, whenever you wish.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

Multiple sources are claiming Apple is either going to replace Google as default search with Microsoft's Bing in iPhone OS 4, or at least integrate Bing into the search picture.

Look, it's just over a week until WWDC 2010 and the rumors are just going to get crazier, okay? Apple and Google have been on increasingly shaky ground as of late, with some silly comments by Google during their I/O event probably not helping matters. Whether or not this proves to be true, or any of the parties chooses to comment or dispel the rumor like Microsoft did the Visual Studio for iPhone/iPad/Mac rumor from a couple days ago, we'll just have to wait and see.

And hey, Bing powers Yahoo! which is already a search option, so if that becomes Bing in name as well, and even if it's default, it's hard to see Apple eliminating Google as a user-assignable option anyway, so for diehard Googlers it will just be one annoying settings switch away.

Real, fake, really fake, let us know what you think!

[BusinessWeek, TechCrunch. Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft has released a new version of Bing [Free - iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch. Florian Voss chronicled on their blog, includes:

Bookmarks and improved web browsing: you can now bookmark maps, directions, web sites, businesses, search terms, even the weather report, and get to the bookmarks right from the Bing home page.

Sharing: you can share interesting results with your friends using e-mail.

Copy and paste URLs: you told us and we listened! We now support copying and pasting URLs.

Parental control on search settings: we helped make search safer by letting you set a SafeSearch level and create a passcode so it can’t be changed. This is a benefit for parents who want to make sure the kids are only going to safe sites on their devices.

Search history and private search: you can now view and edit your search history. You can also search the web without saving your history on the device using private search.

Explicit location setting: let your iPhone find you or set a specific location so you can search near there (super useful when you're going to travel to another city and want to find things around there).

Tighter integration of contacts in directions: Bing now autosuggests contacts from your address book when you enter start and end locations in directions.

Support for 1st generation iPod touch devices: we now support all versions of iPod touch.

While Google and Apple continue to squabble, and speculation remains that Bing might become the next default search engine for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it's nice to see Microsoft continue to invest in -- and improve --the App Store app.

Note: Sadly, it appears to be US only still. For the biggest software company in the world, ignoring most of the world is... disappointing. Let's share the Bing, shall we?

Video from Macworld 2010 of TiPb talking with Florian Voss about Bing for iPhone re-embedded after the break!

[Thanks to our good buddy Phil for the tip!]

Given the rumors surrounding Apple and Google lately, and the iPhone and Microsoft Bing, it's no wonder Mobile World Congress 2010 has raised both topics again, earning a smile from Steve Ballmer, and yet another "stable" comment from Google.

First up, Reuters has comments from Vic Gundotra, Google mobile engineering lead:

"Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we're very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that's going to change." [...] "We don't want to comment on those rumours. We think that relationship is stable."

"Stable" being the same word repeated twice by Google CEO, Eric Schmidt recently when he was similarly asked about the state of the Apple/Google relationship.

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer played things more coyly according to Reuters:

When asked about the reports, Ballmer said "I wouldn't comment either way," but smiled, and repeated the phrase when the reporter remarked that Ballmer looked happy.

This once again highlights the broad but internally conflicted scope of Microsoft and Google's businesses. Ballmer and Schmidt no doubt want WinPho7s and Android to compete well against the iPhone, but they both also want the revenue from iPhone search traffic -- something Google reportedly pays $100 million a year for already.

Florian Voss from Microsoft Bing for Mobile talks to TiPb's Rene and Leanna about Bing for iPhone [Free - iTunes link]... and iPad! Recorded live at Macworld 2010.

Watch along after the break...

Jim Goldman of CNBC claims to have a source that is giving up some goods on the whole Apple and Microsoft teaming up against Google fiasco story:

• Microsoft wants part of the iPhone pie as the Bing app is currently bringing more web traffic than all of their Verizon deals put together.
• Microsoft is willing to pay Apple more than Google.
• Apple simply needs the search API from Bing, nothing more. (They will roll their own UI).
• Lastly, "Jobs hates Eric"

Ouch, that last one stings. How long will it be until we see Apple create their own search engine? Anyone taking bets?

[Via Yahoo, thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]

Business Insider is reporting that, given Google's new rise to smartphone rival, Apple is now in talks with previous-generation frenemy Microsoft to replace the iPhone's default search engine with Bing.

"Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy," says one of the people, who's familiar with Apple's thinking. "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle." Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, a move that would encroach on Google's ad-serving business, the person says.

The iPhone is a monster on the mobile internet, and default search engine status is worth monstrous amounts of cash to those who get to serve ads along with the results. But let's slow down a moment here...

First, they're basing this on the usual anonymous sources which could be right, wrong, or trying to manipulate the Apple/Google/Microsoft situation by "leaking" this. Hey, we've seen that happen when Apple negotiates with carriers. Second, Business Week further states the deal could still fly apart, or could take a long time to be reached. Third, right now Google is the default search engine on the iPhone but users can still switch to Yahoo!, so if Bing gets added to that list, even if it becomes the default, presumably users could still switch to Google (or Yahoo!... or is that already Bing?). And then there's the nu-cu-lar option:

The person familiar with Apple's thinking says Apple has a "skunk works" looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that "if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it's about buying itself time." Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising—and the iPhone maker's desire to slow Google—"Apple isn't going to outsource the future."

Likely why they wanted to buy AdMob and ended up buying Quattro Wireless, and why Steve Jobs wants to get involved with mobile advertising.

What would happen to other Google-powered service apps like Maps isn't discussed (though Apple has bought PlaceBase for map data layering). However, this just further shows what TiPb has been saying for a while now -- Apple believes the UI is the application for the user, and controlling the UI means they can swap out the pipes in the background (swap out Google Search, swap in Bing Search) without much problem (as long as the new pipe produces good, visually non-jarring results). When a huge competitor like Google tries to control the interface, like with a Google Voice app, then Apple has a problem because they can't swap Google out with Microsoft Voice (or whatever), but a user can ditch the iPhone hardware for an Android device and be perfectly familiar with that UI front end.

I saw Microsoft's massive booth at CES and a giant Bing sign so, optimistically, I went on over to talk with them while our friends from WMExperts hit up the devices. The Bing folks were great, but had no specific knowledge about Bing for iPhone other than there was an app and it did stuff but was kinda beta outside the US. Fair enough. So I headed over to the main reception and asked if there was anyone there from the Microsoft iPhone team. And that's when it got funny. "What iPhone team?"

Eventually they sent me over to the Windows Phone counter, who just laughed at me and got annoyed that I was sent there.

Why am I posting this? Microsoft is one of, if not still the, biggest software maker in the world. Whether they offer a competing mobile platform or not, there are probably approaching 70 million iPhones on the market, and Microsoft provides Exchange ActiveSync, and apps like SeaDragon (okay, Microsoft Labs, but still), and Bing (which they'd like to be a big deal). That there was no one from Microsoft's iPhone team at Macworld last year was silly but understandable. That there's no one here at CES 2010 this year -- or at least if there is, they're not at all discoverable -- is just dumb.

If you're not going to do integrated offerings, if you're going to be the "network nervous system" that services everyone, if you're going to offer software and services for other popular platforms -- show up and evangelize them. If you want to compete against Google and be taken seriously, if you're going to be in the game -- have some players show up.

Microsoft has just made Bing [Free - iTunes app] their second iPhone and iPod touch app (no, Office wasn't first -- that's still MIA -- the amazing image-zooming Seadragon was), and it's fairly impressive. It takes a lot of the services Google powers throughout the iPhone and the Google Mobile app and collects them all in one place -- internet text string search, image, movies, a business directory, news, and maps and directions. You can also do Voice Search though without the accelerometer and proximity sensor tricks that make's Google's version so Star Trek.

The Bing app is great looking as well, with large photo backgrounds a la Bing website (and yes, you can tap the rounded square overlays to get factoids). Text string searches are pretty much on par with Google, sometimes returning more sensible results in more logical orders, sometimes not. A simple image search for "theiphoneblog bing", however, returned no results from the Bing app, and exactly what I was looking for in Google. (see below). Likewise, Voice Search tended to crash the app when it went into "thinking" mode. The business and other directory-style information is great, as usual with Bing.

If you're interested in comparing Microsoft's own Windows Mobile version, our buddy Phil from WMExperts has you covered. If you're wondering why Microsoft made Bing for the iPhone, despite Steve Ballmer cracking wise about the iPhone and the internet, Apple's platform enjoys a huge share of the mobile browsing space and Bing wants those eyeballs as much as the just-as-competitive-now Google.

Screenshots after the break!

[Bing via Thurrott]

Big news round Twitter-way, with Apple adding a few more official Twitter accounts, and Microsoft Bing and Google paying for unrestricted access to real-time search Twitter's firehose of user status posts.

First up, while Apple's never been accused of "getting" social media, and it may come as a surprise they're using Twitter at all, it's not so surprising that -- rather than customer feedback, support, or insight into the iron curtain that shrouds Cupertino -- these accounts are just news/marketing updates on when the latest music and media hits the world's most popular download service. (And some seem less than active at the moment). Baby steps?

You can follow them via: iTunesTrailers, iTunesMusic, iTunesMovies, iTunesTV, and iTunesPodcasts.

Also both Microsoft's Bing and Google have now announced partnerships with Twitter. Bing says:

Were you as fascinated by the 6-year-old boy floating away in a balloon as we were? Was it a hoax? We know that people are going to twitter more and more for information surrounding all the latest chatter. You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today.

Google says:

We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.

Does this hybrid search model appeal to you? Let us know!

[Ballmer photoshop re-used in honor of Windows 7 launch day]

Bing Community Blog has announced that Microsoft is "sprinkling some Cocoa" on their Bing. (No laughing!):

The Bing iPhone and Mac SDK is available for download on CodePlex, open source under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL).

The SDK provides:

• The ability to easily query Bing from within your Cocoa or Cocoa Touch application.
• Perform both synchronous and asynchronous queries.
• Search Bing for Web, Image, Video, News, and Phonebook results.

We hope that you'll be able to make some great Cocoa/iPhone apps that harness the power of Bing!

Happy Bing-ing!

Of course, the iPhone's default search is Google, with Yahoo! as an option, and Bing will soon be powering Yahoo! search, so it's ipso de post facto (pardon the Latin-ish) it's already there, but still it will be interesting to see what kind of iPhone apps come of -- and leverage -- this. We just hope it really makes an awesome "BING!" sound whenever a query hits the index...

[Via Macworld]

Yahoo! and Microsoft have just announced a 10-year search deal where Microsoft's newly re-branded Bing service will take over web searches for the venerable Yahoo! For its part, Yahoo! will get 88% of ad-based search revenue for 5 years and the ability to sell ads to some Microsoft search sites as well and limited access to user data.

Um, okay. Is that a good deal? Even if it doesn't face any regulatory or approval problems, the deal won't close until next year and then will take up to a couple of years to get up and running.

So, impact on the iPhone and iPhone users in the short term is likely nothing. Although, like Jacob's nemesis on Lost, it could mean Microsoft has finally found a loophole to get their Bing search service onto the iPhone...

Currently the iPhone offers too search options via Settings > Safari: Google and Yahoo. Will Apple be switching that to Google and Bing?