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Apple kicked out Google Branding in Safari Search Box. Ish Getting Real!

N

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
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So apparently in iOS6, Apple has gotten rid of the Google branding in the Safari search box. Instead of reading "Google", it now just says "Search".

With this move and their loss in the native Maps app, looks like Google is losing a whole lot of brand presence with the 350 million and counting iOS users. Not good for Google.
 
newagemac said:
So apparently in iOS6, Apple has gotten rid of the Google branding in the Safari search box. Instead of reading "Google", it now just says "Search".

With this move and their loss in the native Maps app, looks like Google is losing a whole lot of brand presence with the 350 million and counting iOS users. Not good for Google.
Click to expand...

The branding is gone, but it still takes you to google.

I highly doubt people are going to forget about that company.
 
Of course it still takes you to Google. But the branding is gone which is pretty significant. Google doesn't like it one bit. After all, it was reported that one of the biggest reasons why they wouldn't allow Apple to use their turn by turn navigation in the iPhone's maps is because they wanted more branding of their name in the phone.

So not only did they lose their presence in the native Maps altogether with that stance, they got removed in the Safari search box as well. I guess that posturing by Google didn't work out too well.

----------

By the way, it was a silly demand by Google. If Apple is coding and maintaining the app, how the heck do you think you get the app to be named Google Maps?

Google's demand made about as much sense as Verizon or AT&T demanding the iPhone to be named after them instead of Apple.

You're just a dumb pipe supplying the map data, Google. Provide the data and shut up just like the carriers.
 
newagemac said:
So apparently in iOS6, Apple has gotten rid of the Google branding in the Safari search box. Instead of reading "Google", it now just says "Search".

With this move and their loss in the native Maps app, looks like Google is losing a whole lot of brand presence with the 350 million and counting iOS users. Not good for Google.
Click to expand...

In settings, Safari settings.. Search engine, there are 3.. Google,yahoo and bing.
In ios 6 they change that?
 
I think this started long before and has little to do with the branding. Once Apple realized that Google was going to aggressively go after mobile the game was on. When the first iPhone came out it wasn't completely clear that these two were going to compete in mobile. After all, Google's CEO had a seat on the Apple board. They probably thought Apple will make stuff and google will make search stuff and it will all play nicely together... then the lightbulb went on and the changes were put in motion.
 
Nand said:
In settings, Safari settings.. Search engine, there are 3.. Google,yahoo and bing.
In ios 6 they change that?
Click to expand...

No, the search engines are still available. But Google doesn't get any branding in the search box anymore. It now reads "Search" instead of "Google" in the search box.
 
newagemac said:
So apparently in iOS6, Apple has gotten rid of the Google branding in the Safari search box. Instead of reading "Google", it now just says "Search".

With this move and their loss in the native Maps app, looks like Google is losing a whole lot of brand presence with the 350 million and counting iOS users. Not good for Google.
Click to expand...

That's definitely interesting!

I wonder how Apple feels about YouTube. They can't just replace it.
 
Vimeo is the best possible replacement. It's very good but just doesn't have nearly as many users as Youtube. The thing about something like Youtube though is that it's not something that warrants much (if any) integration and so you could just relegate it to just another option in the App Store or give the user an option to select another app for the default. It would be far easier than replacing Google Maps data.
 
SGMD1 said:
Uh, no.

Google wanted to bring navigation to the iPhone, but Apple rejected it: http://www.appleinsider.com/article...on_will_come_to_iphone_if_apple_approves.html
Click to expand...

Uh, no. Google wanted more branding and refused to let Apple use turn by turn navigation with that being one of the major reasons:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304543904577398502695522974.html

The two sides bickered over a Google Maps feature called Street View, which lets people see an actual photo as if they are standing in the street. Apple wanted to incorporate Street View on the iPhone just as Google already offered it for Android phones. Google initially withheld the feature, frustrating Apple executives, according to people on both sides of the debate.

Apple executives also wanted to include Google's turn-by-turn-navigation service in the iPhone—a feature popular with Android users because it lets people treat their phones as in-car GPS devices. Google wouldn't allow it, according to people on both sides. One of these people said Google viewed Apple's terms as unfair.

Google executives, meantime, also bristled at Apple's refusal to add features that would help Google. For instance, Google wanted to emphasize its brand name more prominently within the maps app. It also wanted Apple to enable its service designed to find friends nearby, dubbed Latitude, which Apple refrained from doing, said people on both sides.
Click to expand...
 
SGMD1 said:
You bolded the wrong part. The important sentence was:

Google wanted to bring navigation to the iPhone, but Apple's terms were too strict.
Click to expand...

My original statement was that Google wanted more branding and would not let Apple use turn by turn navigation for that reason and you said "uh, no". I think it's obvious to anyone reading this thread who got their facts wrong.

Just to clarify, Apple wanted to bring Google's turn by turn navigation to the iPhone but Google refused to let them do so. They made ridiculous demands like requiring the app that Apple themselves created and maintained to be named "Google Maps". Which as I pointed out earlier makes about as much sense as AT&T and Verizon requiring Apple to name the iPhone with their name.

Google is just supplying the data, they didn't create the app. A dumb pipe like the carriers. It is ridiculous for them to demand the app be named after them without them creating the app as if it was their app.
 
Last edited:
newagemac said:
Just to clarify, Apple wanted to bring Google's turn by turn navigation to the iPhone but Google refused to let them do so.
Click to expand...
Again...no.

Google wanted to bring navigation to the iPhone, but Apple's branding terms were too strict.

Which makes more sense - a company like Google, known for its focus on market penetration as opposed to exclusivity and which offers all its other apps on the iPhone - refused to give navigation to Apple?

Or that Apple - known for its closed platform and strict terms - refused Google Navigation?

Common sense dictates the obvious answer here.
 
I dunno about you guys, but I think Gmaps and Gsearch are the best services available when compared with other options. Youtube... eh, I can settle for it.

I don't see myself going to Android just yet, but I really hope that the new Maps at least half matches Gmaps. As for G search, that has been indispensable for me since I got my first iPhone several years ago. I really can't imagine Safari without it. Hoping these two companies find some common ground, instead of further isolating the two camps.
 
99% of google maps is the service. The app is just a shell. It's like saying you shouldn't call gmail by the name gmail because you use the browser safari or internet explorer to get there. Google maps is google maps, the app is just an icon.



newagemac said:
My original statement was that Google wanted more branding and would not let Apple use turn by turn navigation for that reason and you said "uh, no". I think it's obvious to anyone reading this thread who got their facts wrong.

Just to clarify, Apple wanted to bring Google's turn by turn navigation to the iPhone but Google refused to let them do so. They made ridiculous demands like requiring the app that Apple themselves created and maintained to be named "Google Maps". Which as I pointed out earlier makes about as much sense as AT&T and Verizon requiring Apple to name the iPhone with their name.

Google is just supplying the data, they didn't create the app. A dumb pipe like the carriers. It is ridiculous for them to demand the app be named after them without them creating the app as if it was their app.
Click to expand...
 
The search bar also does find in page, but hardly anyone knows about it because it just said "Google". It was probably more for the sake of accuracy than them hating on Google.
 
vistadude said:
99% of google maps is the service. The app is just a shell. It's like saying you shouldn't call gmail by the name gmail because you use the browser safari or internet explorer to get there. Google maps is google maps, the app is just an icon.
Click to expand...

You seriously have no clue what you're talking about. Have you ever created an application before? The Maps apps on iOS is most certainly not just an icon. That's like saying the new app is just an icon and TomTom's data makes up the whole app, how it works, what features it offers, how it integrates with the rest of the OS, and etc. That's just ridiculous.

Google just provided the map data. They're a dumb pipe like the carriers. That doesn't mean the data isn't important just as the carriers' 3G/4G data is important. But the fact is that developers can create a unique map application and plug in Google or any other mapping service company data the same way companies can create unique phones and plug in carriers' 3G/4G data for voice and internet access. A dumb pipe.
 
Maps app is basically google's. Might as well be called Google Maps.

Apple just put in the search box. All processing happens on googles side.

It's just like YouTube. the actual app/interface is nothing. Should Apple call that something generic too?

The front end of the maps app ain't **** to apple. they could have programmed that in no time.
 
heov said:
Maps app is basically google's. Might as well be called Google Maps.

Apple just put in the search box. All processing happens on googles side.

It's just like YouTube. the actual app/interface is nothing. Should Apple call that something generic too?

The front end of the maps app ain't **** to apple. they could have programmed that in no time.
Click to expand...

Not anymore.

And I would be completely okay with getting rid of the YouTube app. It sucks compared to the mobile web version, for which you can just create an home screen icon from Safari anyway.
 
newagemac said:
Google is just supplying the data, they didn't create the app. A dumb pipe like the carriers. It is ridiculous for them to demand the app be named after them without them creating the app as if it was their app.
Click to expand...

And with a maps app, the data pretty much is the app. What is the app without the data? Nothing. What is in the app apart from Google's maps? Nothing.
 
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