I hadn't paid much attention to this, but one of the 'features' that RIM gives carriers, is the ability to push icons to the homescreen of BlackBerry devices. Any device – BES or BIS.

Carriers can also tweak the browser options and set a default search provider, add new ones, etc. For instance, T-Mobile sets Yahoo as the default. Not a big deal, you can still change it to Google, Live Search, Wikipedia or Dictionary.com.

Big Red on the other hand, decided that the only option would be Bing. No other search providers, no other options whatsoever.

Verizon - Default Search Provider

This is important because normally when you launch the browser, you can perform a search directly from the native browser app, not from a webpage. With VZW I can only BING it.

VZW BlackBerry Search

Let's recap – other providers, like T-Mobile give you 5 options to search, and let you change your default search provider. Verizon used to do this. Verizon now gives you one choice.

Thankfully a Verizon PR flack was all over this. Jim Gerace (who oddly enough has the username jimgerace9 – is VZW Corporate the new AOL?) posted a thoughtful piece titled Use Bing * Or Any Search Engine * From Your VZW Blackberry.

First off, big Jim, way to shit all over RIM. If you read RIM's Branding Guidelines, you'll see that it's BlackBerry®, not Blackberry.

The article is short, so I'll post the entire thing.

Verizon Wireless is passionate about ensuring consumer choice in the wireless sector.

Customers still have all the choices they did before. Verizon offers many ramps onto the Internet, including all search engines.

If you love Google and don't want to use Bing, there are great options:

1) You can "mask" or hide the Bing icon from the webpage. Easy to do.

2) If you want to continue using Google or other search engines as an option, just:
Perform the search from the provider’s web page (i.e. www.google.com, www.wikipedia.com, www.dictionary.com).
Set the web pages as bookmarks in the browser.

3) You can download the free Google search client from Blackberry's Appworld and put it right on your homepage.

4) You can go to Google.com and push a link to your phone. From there, you download the app from Google. http://www.google.com/mobile/products/search.html#p=default

Choice is yours. Verizon isn't blocking or degrading anything; just providing a great option for customers.

This is great, exactly how I expect VZW to handle a problem. Take the bull by the horns, and address a problem head-on.

Customers still have all the choices they did before.

So I had five choices before, and now I only have one – Bing. Yup, that adds up.

Choice is yours.

As long as you choose Bing.

Verizon isn't blocking or degrading anything; just providing a great option for customers.

degrade – to lower to an inferior or less effective level
block – to hinder the passage, progress, or accomplishment of by or as if by interposing an obstruction

I'd argue that Verizon is both blocking and degrading something, but that's just me. And Merriam-Webster. Maybe Bing is a great search engine, but calling it an option implies I have other choices to choose from, which I don't.

I'm sure any Google employees with Verizon BlackBerry devices were thrilled about this great option. Maybe I'll only pay half of my bill this month. It's not degraded, I'm just giving VZW more options!

I'd have a little respect for Verizon if they were at least honest. Microsoft wrote a big check, and Verizon cashed it. I understand that, it's my dream to sell out. You want me to plaster your logo all over this site and post love letters about your company? Drop me a line.