14 DAY TRIAL // Following their official unveiling back in April at the BUILD conference, the first smartphones to run under the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system are currently rolling out to various markets out there, and it seems that they might actually keep Google out of reach for some users.
To be more precise, Microsoft has been found to have disabled an option to set Google as the default search provider on some of these devices, although Windows Phone 8 allows users to opt for this company’s service on most Lumia handsets out there.
According to a recent article on The Verge, while an advanced setting in Internet Explorer on WP8 offered Google as an alternative default search provider, the latest Lumia handsets out there, which are running under Windows Phone 8.1, no longer sport this feature.
Lumia 630 and Lumia 930, the very first device to have been released with Windows Phone 8.1, are both missing the option, at least if purchased unlocked. Some carrier versions of these smartphones appear to still include the settings.
For those out of the loop, we should note that Windows Phone 8 users can set Google to be the default search provider in Internet Explorer, which means that, when typing in the address bar to search in the browser, results would come from this service.
However, while users don’t need to manually navigate to Google to take advantage of its search capabilities in Internet Explorer in Windows Phone 8, they cannot alter the behavior of the search button on their smartphones, which will still take them to Bing by default.
Apparently, Microsoft allows phone makers and wireless carriers to choose whether the Google option would be available for their users or not, and Nokia opted in for allowing owners of Lumia phones to go for Google instead of Bing.
However, with Nokia now part of Microsoft, the latter has decided to change said option, and unlocked Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 phones currently sold in the UK no longer show Google in the aforementioned search options settings.
Most probably, all future Lumia handsets out there will show a similar behavior, which does not come as a surprise, that’s for sure, since Microsoft is expected to promote its own services on devices that it builds.
However, it remains to be seen how Google will react to this, especially since the Mountain View giant is currently accused of forcing makers to set Google as the default search engine on all of their Android phones.