14 DAY TRIAL // If you plan on buying yourself a Samsung Fascinate, then you should know that the smartphone doesn't come with the usual Google search engine, that all Android devices should feature. Instead you will have to live with Bing search engine, formerly known as Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search.
It seems that at the moment, Bing is the third largest search engine on the web by query volume, at 3.24%, after its competitor Google at 84.80% and Yahoo at 6.19%.
Owned by Microsoft, Bing was unveiled at the end of May 2010 and went fully online at the beginning of June 2010.
Even though Verizon, one of the carriers selling Samsung Fascinate, said that Google's search engine that include its new voice action capabilities will be available for download the moment Android 2.2 update will be pushed on Fascinate, here is a short guide that shows you how you can install Google's search engine on Samsung Fascinate.
The process is pretty simple and doesn't require rooting or anything complex, that would be hard to follow.
All credits for finding this simple method of getting Google search on the Fascinate, goes to the guys over Android Central, and requires users to download Google's Enhanced search apk. file outside the Market.
Apparently, the application has been blocked from the Android Market in version 2.1, so you will need to find it somewhere else.
After you downloaded the application, copy it on your SD card and install it using a file manager.
Then you will have to use a third-party launcher (ADW or Launcher Pro), to add the Google Search widget on the home screen and reassign the physical search button.
There's one thing that will not work with an un-rooted Samsung Fascinate and that's the voice search capabilities.
If you're Samsung Fascinate smartphone is already rooted, you will need to go to /system/app and rename I500_BingSearchAndroid_07152010.apk to I500_BingSearchAndroid_07152010.old.
After rebooting your voice search should work smoothly when you keep the Search button pressed.