Apple held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Google as Safari’s private mode search engine: Report

Apple Inc reportedly held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Alphabet’s Google as the default search engine for the private mode on Apple’s Safari browser.

According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, the details of the talks between Apple and DuckDuckGo will be revealed this week amid the Google’s anti-trust hearinng. Judge Amit Mehta, overseeing a federal antitrust suit against Google, ruled on Wednesday that he would unseal the testimony of DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg and Apple executive John Giannandrea.

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The talks about potential deals between Microsoft and Apple and DuckDuckGo and Apple will be unsealed soon, Bloomberg report added.

Last month, the US Department of Justice argued Google, which has some 90% of the search market, illegally paid $10 billion annually to smartphone makers such as Apple and wireless carriers like AT&T and others to be the default in search on their devices in order to stay on top.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was testified on Monday, saying that tech giants were competing for vast troves of content needed to train artificial intelligence, and complained Google was locking up content with expensive and exclusive deals with publishers.

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Nadella was testified about his company’s negotiations to persuade Apple to make Microsoft’s Bing the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser rather than Google. Nadella said Microsoft was willing to lose billions of dollars if Apple made the switch.

Nadella has said that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his company’s rival programme, Bing.

Nadella said users fundamentally don’t have much choice in switching out of default web browsers on cell phones and computers.

“We are one of the alternatives but we’re not the default,” he said.

Nadella said Google’s dominance was due to agreements that made it the default browser on smartphones and computers.