Currently, Spotlight offers a “Web Searches” option which launches Safari (if you haven’t changed your default browser), which in turn runs a Google search, as Google is the default on Safari. This is a big new integration for Bing, which last year knocked Google out of Siri. Here’s a screenshot listing some of the new capabilities from The Verge (I couldn’t snap it fast enough): Spotlight Gets Search Smarts Big Win For Bing Spotlight will also tap into a wide-range of search resources similar to how Siri works on iOS.ĭuring Apple’s WWDC keynote today, the company shared how a revised version of Spotlight will allow typing on the desktop (rather than clicking on small magnifying glass in the menu bar) in order to search your computer for apps and documents.īeyond that, Spotlight is gaining search smarts that will allow it to display results from Apple Maps, Wikipedia, movie showtimes, Bing web searches and other sources.
Bing has gained another win with Apple, becoming integrated into a new version of Spotlight in Apple’s forthcoming Mac OS X “Yosemite” operating system and in the coming iOS 8 mobile operating system.
