'Jobs Hates Eric. Cannot and Will Not Build a Search Engine'

CNBC's Jim Goldman has learned some new details about the Apple and Microsoft discussions to use Bing Search for the iPhone.

This information comes from "a knowledgeable source very familiar with search dynamics involving Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo"

● Microsoft's Bing app for iPhone provides more queries than any other mobile source including the entire Verizon Wireless network.


● This source says "Jobs hates Eric."

● Apple gets paid for each Google search from the iPhone that leads to an ad click. Microsoft is willing to pay more to gain much needed market share.

● Discussions between Microsoft and Apple have been ongoing since the October/November time frame.

● Jobs may not like Microsoft products, but that doesn't mean he's "anti-Microsoft." Recall that Microsoft bailed out Apple in the past, develops Microsoft Office for the Mac, and created the original browser for the iMac in Internet Explorer. "Steve understands that Bing will give him a Search API where he can integrate search results deeper and deeper in the product without having to see the Bing web page and user-interface," says this source.


● Jobs "cannot and will not build a search engine" of his own. The amount of expertise you need to build relevance is simply not what Apple wants to do, he argues. Apple, he says, wants to inject its own ads into Maps, Weather, Stocks and Search results, so, getting a Search API from Microsoft is really what Apple wants.


Goldman writes that he is not sure about the last point since he has heard that Apple is working on a search engine so it can control the entire eco-system.

It was rumored in November of 2008 that Apple had started work on its own search engine; however, little more has been revealed since then.

Read More