Not Just Google: Siri Searches Bing And Yahoo Too

Earlier tonight Danny Sullivan discovered that Siri will also search Bing and Yahoo, though it searches Google by default. If you say, “Search the web for . . .” or you ask Siri a question it can’t answer it will search Google (the iPhone’s default search engine). But if you say, “Search Bing for Steve Ballmer News” or “Search Bing for weather” or “Search Bing for Search Engine Land” you get the following:

The same is true for Yahoo. If you say, “Search Yahoo for Wilson Phillips” or “Search Yahoo for Google Earnings” you see these results:

Who knew? Well, if you launch Siri, click the little info button, then select the Web Search option, you’ll find an example listed at the end of how you can ask “Bing Alicia Keys,” it turns out. But most people probably haven’t done this.

Of course if you change your search settings to make Yahoo or Bing the default, Siri will search either of them instead of Google. In that scenario, you could still get to Google by saying “Search Google . . .”

Siri thus emerges as a very efficient way to compare search results or to use a second engine if you don’t like what you get the first time.

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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http://www.planetc1.com/ Michael Dorausch

Really glad you’ve been taking the time to figure this all out. I’ve only had my phone since Sunday and I’ve been exploring it near non stop since. Keeping noes on what’s working (and what’s not) and putting yours (and others) suggestions to the test. Most fun I’ve had with search since Google rolled out local in 2010. :)
http://www.gamerstube.com Joe Youngblood

sh*t siri says also showed screengrabs using wolfram-alpha
http://www.fangdigital.com Jeff Ferguson

I’ve actually had her go yahoo on her own, even though my default is google. Usually this comes up when she doesn’t know the answer and suggests a web search as a solution. It appears you discovered that you can be specific, but it also appears, she may choose what she wants when she wants.