Microsoft appears to be blocking Google as default search option on select Lumia devices

Microsoft is reportedly blocking Google as a search engine option on some of Nokia’s new Lumia handsets. Windows Phone devices ship with Bing as their default search engine without an option to change platforms. Prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s phone making division, the Finnish company provided users with an option to change a Lumia’s search engine via its web browser, but this appears to be gone from some devices.

Microsoft officially purchased Nokia’s phone making business earlier this year and the companies first two phones, the Lumia 630 and 930 launched without support for this feature. Google is currently facing lawsuits with plaintiffs alleging that the company forces Android licensees to use its search engine by default. However, the company lets users change search engines in Chrome.

This isn’t the first case of bad blood that we’ve seen between the Microsoft and Google and it likely won’t be the last. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update things here if the company provides any details.

(via The Verge)