Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and Microsoft inked a five-year search deal in 2009, but so far Microsoft has not seen that translate into growth in the mobile search market. In July, according to a comScore survey, only 1.7 percent of U.S. cellphone customers had used Microsoft's Bing's search engine, compared with 14.4 percent for Google. Microsoft is hoping that is about to change. According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon is going to release seven smartphones this fall running Google's Android platform but featuring Bing search--though none will be in Verizon's Droid franchise. Verizon just released the Samsung Fascinate, which uses Bing as its default search engine. However, Verizon said Bing will not be the default search engine on all of its phones in the future. Article (sub. req.)
