[Robert Carpenter]

I haven't seen this brought up yet and there seems to be discrepancies.

Does anyone know what this feature is dependent on? Location, Carrier.. etc? Just like Group Messaging missing on Verizon, this setting seams to only be in specific phones.

On my HTX 8X from Verizon, there isn't a setting to change the search provider. Why would a setting like this be excluded from certain phones?

[alfonz]

That is odd my Lumia 920 has option of leaving bing or changing it to google as default search provider

[layfnatu2]

I have a Nokia Lumia 920 on AT&T in the US and I have the option to change the default search provide to Google

[Laura Knotek]

Verizon and Microsoft made a deal several years ago which even added Bing as the default search engine on BlackBerry and some Android devices. Perhaps this is part of the VZW/Microsoft deal http://support.verizonwireless.com/i...ingupdate.html

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/...nes/2010-09-10

[Robert Carpenter]

Verizon and Microsoft made a deal several years ago which even added Bing as the default search engine on BlackBerry and some Android devices. Perhaps this is part of the VZW/Microsoft deal Verizon Wireless & Bing™ | Verizon Wireless

Verizon, Microsoft: Bing not exclusive for all Android phones - FierceWireless

Awesome info. This is going to get extremely messy. There are enough problems when specific devices have exclusivity. Seems like Microsoft is allowing exclusivity of anything that is of interest.

[Laura Knotek]

Awesome info. This is going to get extremely messy. There are enough problems when specific devices have exclusivity. Seems like Microsoft is allowing exclusivity of anything that is of interest.

It's really not that unusual for providers to have those types of deals. For example, AT&T DSL/U-Verse uses Yahoo for its homepage and webmail.

Verizon DSL/FiOS at one time offered subscribers either a Verizon Yahoo or Verizon MSN homepage/webmail. I believe those have since been discontinued, but legacy customers might still have them.

All of the carriers have offered various exclusives to wireless customers, not based upon the phone platform. For instance, Sprint had a football app for a while that was not available to customers at AT&T, VZW, or T-Mobile.

[Robert Carpenter]

It's really not that unusual for providers to have those types of deals. For example, AT&T DSL/U-Verse uses Yahoo for its homepage and webmail.

Verizon DSL/FiOS at one time offered subscribers either a Verizon Yahoo or Verizon MSN homepage/webmail. I believe those have since been discontinued, but legacy customers might still have them.

All of the carriers have offered various exclusives to wireless customers, not based upon the phone platform. For instance, Sprint had a football app for a while that was not available to customers at AT&T, VZW, or T-Mobile.

I completely understand. Exclusives are very common.

But usually exclusives give you something that others can't get. In this case, they are taking away features that everyone else can get. The thing is, there probably isn't a single person at Verizon or Microsoft that has knowledge of this. Companies should not be able to do things like this without people knowing.

[Laura Knotek]

I completely understand. Exclusives are very common.

But usually exclusives give you something that others can't get. In this case, they are taking away features that everyone else can get. The thing is, there probably isn't a single person at Verizon or Microsoft that has knowledge of this. Companies should not be able to do things like this without people knowing.

I agree with you.

There have been a lot of those types of exclusives that have restricted customers' usage, unfortunately.

I had BlackBerrys from AT&T in the past. AT&T wanted customers to pay for their AT&T Navigator app, so they disabled BlackBerry Maps.

Verizon also used to disable GPS on BlackBerry unless customers used VZW's apps.

[WasteSomeTime]

You can go to www.google.com and pin it to start if you can't go a day without google. The tile will launch the google home page.
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[Robert Carpenter]

You can go to www.google.com and pin it to start if you can't go a day without google. The tile will launch the google home page.
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This will help others I'm sure, but I have no problem with Bing. My reason for the thread, as you can see by the replies, is that everyone is clueless about this. It was never mentioned anywhere. And I can guarantee you that almost everyone on Verizon has no idea other phones have this feature.

There is too much control in the cellular world. Features like this should always be consistent across all devices. Verizon is a company that provides services. They shouldn't be able to modify the phone in anyway other than to work properly with their service. The business world would be a much better place with this approach.

I cannot wait for the next step in technology to come and render these cellular companies obsolete.

[LikeWaah]

I guess that Verizon partnership may have something to do with it.

I'm on AT&T w/ a Lumia 920, and Google has been an option for IE since day 1.

[WasteSomeTime]

Verizon has always blocked Bluetooth file push or done something to stop customers from enjoying the full experience of their phones.
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