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Apple Removes 'Google' Branding from iPhone 4 Safari

ASDFer said:
OK, I've just googled (searched) "ilounge apple removes google from safari"

This one pretty much explains it more.
http://37prime.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/ilounge-and-macrumors-have-jumped-into-conclusions/

Apple also removes "Yahoo!" from Safari.
Both "Yahoo!" and "Google" are replaced with the word "Search" in Safari button.

Can we flag this as non-news?
Click to expand...
Much as I suspected, MacRumors was reading too much into this change.

Apple basically got rid of the individual company's names as verbs and simply used the word "search" instead.

So much for investigative journalism. (I see this was relegated to page 2.)
 
Improper usage, anyway.

Well, Apple's use of "Google" or "Yahoo!" for that button was improper, anyway. The button 'performs a search'. Where 'search' is a verb. Everywhere else in the iPhone OS, the blue "submit" button has a verb written on it.

"Google" and "Yahoo!", per trademark laws, are adjectives, not verbs. Using them as verbs dilutes the trademarks. By all rights, Google and Yahoo should have insisted long ago that the button not have their name on it, but that it say "Search" instead.

Yes, it could be a sign that Apple is going to replace Google as the default. It could also be that Google and/or Yahoo finally cajoled Apple into treating their trademarks properly.
 
I don't know if we can read that much into this. It is beta software. "Search" may just be a placeholder that one of the software engineers used without even thinking twice about it.
 
a few years back didn't Google try and get people to move away from saying things like "I'm going to 'Google' that." to say something like "I'm going to search that using Google."

I hope this change is simply to go along with stuff like that. I am getting a little bit worried these days that Apple is pushing away a lot of old friends. (like: Adobe, Google) I'd love to see some great synergy between Apple, Google, and Adobe (again). this is not to say that I want to see flash on my Apple mobile devices though.
 
When my wife first bought her iPhone she had to ask me how to search, because it wasn't obvious to her that the google button would initiate the search. My wife is not a computer geek, but she is hardly a novice. I think this change was genuinely made to make the phone easier to use. I think it is very interesting that everybody is interpreting this as an attack on Google, while ignoring the fact that they did the same thing to Yahoo!
 
As long as I have the option to choose my search engine to be Google, I'm ok with whatever Apple decides. I tried using Bing, it fails. Great for shopping though! Loving those bing discounts.

I'll Bing that! i--->a.... M$ Fail...
 
arkmannj said:
a few years back didn't Google try and get people to move away from saying things like "I'm going to 'Google' that." to say something like "I'm going to search that using Google."

I hope this change is simply to go along with stuff like that. I am getting a little bit worried these days that Apple is pushing away a lot of old friends. (like: Adobe, Google) I'd love to see some great synergy between Apple, Google, and Adobe (again). this is not to say that I want to see flash on my Apple mobile devices though.
Click to expand...

I'm getting a bit worried that everyone is misinterpreting these decisions by Apple. They are not attacking Adobe, Google or Yahoo! They are just making decisions to make the iPhone the best product they can. Google is still the default search engine on the iPhone, if Apple was trying to hurt Google they would at least change the default to Yahoo! Many years ago apple abandoned the 5.25" floppy drive. I wonder if people took that as an attack on the floppy disk manufacturers.

100 years ago you could get a job scooping up horse poop in the streets, but Benz and Ford put a stop to that by selling cars to people to replace their horse drawn buggies. Time marches on.
 
ValSalva said:
I don't know if we can read that much into this. It is beta software. "Search" may just be a placeholder that one of the software engineers used without even thinking twice about it.
Click to expand...

The iPad software is not beta and it uses the same new search button.
 
In case nobody has mentioned it yet (-edit- I see it has been mentioned), it isn't just Google branding. It is Yahoo! branding as well (everybody always forgets that Yahoo! is there on the iPhone as well). It isn't like they are singling out Google (or if they are singling out Google, Yahoo! is a causality as well).

IMG_0014.png
 
ehurtley said:
Well, Apple's use of "Google" or "Yahoo!" for that button was improper, anyway. The button 'performs a search'. Where 'search' is a verb. Everywhere else in the iPhone OS, the blue "submit" button has a verb written on it.

"Google" and "Yahoo!", per trademark laws, are adjectives, not verbs. Using them as verbs dilutes the trademarks. By all rights, Google and Yahoo should have insisted long ago that the button not have their name on it, but that it say "Search" instead.

Yes, it could be a sign that Apple is going to replace Google as the default. It could also be that Google and/or Yahoo finally cajoled Apple into treating their trademarks properly.
Click to expand...


per trade mark laws maybe but the work google has also become a verb.

We have all heard the term google it. Or I googled for it. Google is more or less a verb in the English language now and it means used a search the internet.
 
Aljovido said:
Apple is just having a ball stepping on all these other companies like this.
Click to expand...

Step on Google? Android going to have and "Apple" key? Google stepped on their own foot when they decided to have an operating system. They have every right to have an os etc, but competitors are not going to help.

It is healthy for google to be a distant second while Apple is first in mobile devices where Google is first in search. Microsoft is first in OS and not search.

Etc.
 
SteveSparks said:
Step on Google? Android going to have and "Apple" key? Google stepped on their own foot when they decided to have an operating system. They have every right to have an os etc, but competitors are not going to help.

It is healthy for google to be a distant second while Apple is first in mobile devices where Google is first in search. Microsoft is first in OS and not search.

Etc.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to Android when you say "operating system?". If you are, the fact that Google bought Android INC back in 2005 and that was public knowledge, Apple should have forseen the two companies competing if the iPhone was in development back then (I'd assume it was).

Whilst no one knew what Apples plans were in 2005, Google entered the smartphone OS business in 2005 with the purchase of Android INC.
 
In my opinion, the internet is not as useful as it once was.

Back in the day you could do a search on a topic and find actual web sites made by individuals interested in that topic. Now you do a search on a topic like gardening and you will get a bunch of hits from sites trying to sell you stuff (like seeds or garden tools) or corporate sites with sponsors.

If you just want to find popular sites on a topic made by individuals who share an interest with you, good luck.

I would gladly adopt a search engine that had an option to ignore sites that are actually selling you things.

And as for the on-line "yellow pages", when you do in fact want to search for a local business, you have to sift through on-line sites. Absolutely useless as real local yellow pages.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
per trade mark laws maybe but the work google has also become a verb.

We have all heard the term google it. Or I googled for it. Google is more or less a verb in the English language now and it means used a search the internet.
Click to expand...

That may be true, but Google is required to protect the proper usage, or else they lose the trademark outright. Google (and Yahoo) probably just pushed on Apple enough to have Apple fix it.

Why do you think Xerox pushes so hard for people to call the act "photocopying", not "Xeroxing"?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Good. They knew there were going to be consequences.
 
skate71290 said:
For ****'s Sake Steve grow up i don't want some wank Microsoft Search Engine... Google is the best... and for crying out loud no wonder Flash is wank because you won't support Adobe... and Flash-iPhone games would have been legendary :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Click to expand...

You should probably read or at least skim the whole thread before commenting to avoid embarrassing overreactions like that. It's already been demonstrated that references to Google persist in various locations and that this change was made to clarify the UI. Labeling a "search" button as "Google" is confusing for some users. This is not an anti-Google thing.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

onethree said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Good. They knew there were going to be consequences.
Click to expand...

Consequences for what exactly?
 
Nobody is winning of Apples behavior towards Google..
We, Apple and Google are taking major L's, imagine if Google stopped releasing updates on Google maps, no updated Gmail accounts when the time comes.
And also since HTML5 writer is from Google, imagine if they stop caring about priority for iPhone and iPad?.. I mean Google is too powerful to be played with today. They've already according to Forbes got a much higher market value.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/18/global-09_The-Global-2000_MktVal.html
 
Seems to me that google or any other search engine that wants to be the default choice in a browser, any browser, should pay for that.
 
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