Verizon has unilaterally updated user Storm 2 BlackBerries and other smartphones so that their browser search boxes can only be used with Microsoft Bing.
The move is part of the five-year search and advertising deal Verizon signed with Microsoft in January for a rumored $500m.
Verizon pushed the search change over its network two days ago, the company has confirmed with The Reg. « We’re a proud supporter of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, » a company spokesman tells us. […]
Naturally, such sites can still be queried via the browser proper. But countless users are up-in-arms over the switch. A discussion thread dedicated to the change at CrackBerry, a popular BlackBerry user site, is now 36 pages long.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/19/verizon_snuffs_google_for_bing/