Why isn't this optional like everything else on the toolbar?
It takes up 1/3rd of the tool bar on my screen and has made the toolbar useless to me as I pretty much just have a giant search box tied to a search engine that I would never use.
PLEASE make it optional. Your app was once the most customisable keyboard out there, but now you are forcing Bing onto everyone who uses it. That's not only biased towards Bing, but it's also completely against your brand image to force something onto the keyboard without being able to turn it off.
- What about the people who do like it but actually prefer to use other search engines and are now stuck with Bing?
- Why are you being biased towards Bing? Windows was forced through a lawsuit to offer their users other search engines during setup of their internet browser as it was found to be unfair to the competition - isn't this exactly what you are doing?
- Why add a search bar to the keyboard when there is one on the android homepage, at the top of every browser and on most quick access tool bars on phones, tablets and PC's - think Cortana for example?
- What about the fact that most people just use voice commands on their phones to search?
- What about older people like myself who have really tiny phones?
- What about people who don't want to have a search bar?
- What about the lack of customisation that you've left your users with that was once your claim to fame?
- If you insist on making it mandatory to have it there, why can't you make it a button like everything else?
- If you insist on making it mandatory to have it there, why can't you make it smaller?
- If you insist on making it mandatory to have it there and you're unwilling to make it a button, why not at the very least make it shorter - then it could expand when you use the search box for you to type in rather than it taking up so much precious screen room.
- Why not keep with your brand image and make it customisable like everything else?
- Why not listen to your users before they switch to a different keyboard? There are countless other great keyboards these days that offer almost identical services, and most of your users probably don't even utilise the full extent of your app anyway.
Please do the sensible thing and make it removable. I don't want it, and clearly a lot of other people don't either as there are even articles on various websites about it...