Petal Search (also known simply as Petal) is a mobile Search-based application for Android, owned and operated by

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

and aimed at allowing users to find apps and web results delivered by

Microsoft Bing Microsoft Bing (also known simply as Bing) is a search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service traces its roots back to Microsoft's earlier search engines, including MSN Search, Windows Live Search, and Live Search. Bing offers a ...

History

In 2019, multinational technology company

was affected by the sanctions enforced during an ongoing international trade ban because United States wanted to remove Huawei from the market.

’s new and upcoming Android smartphones were denied access to Google Mobile Services. Due to these restrictions,

decided to expand the scope of the Petal Search service to create an independent

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

in response to sanctions that barred Huawei from using Google Mobile Services. In 2022, Petal Search has been announced as the winner of iF DESIGN AWARD 2022. It originally had an independent search engine under the same name available on the web, but it was quietly discontinued on 25 June 2023.

Functionality

Search Channels

The engine provides comprehensive search functionality including text, voice, visual, news, video, app, shopping, travel, and local searches. It can present mobile app results from the Huawei AppGallery and other trusted app stores.

Visual Search

Petal Search supports searching for photos, reverse image search, and the standard text-based search. Visual search functions rely on

’s visual search technology, HiTouch. It can search for and detect multiple objects in an image at the same time. For example, when a user takes a photo of a sofa with a blanket and a cushion on it, Petal Search can identify all three items, and then deliver

search results A search engine results page (SERP) is a webpage that is displayed by a search engine in response to a query by a user. The main component of a SERP is the listing of results that are returned by the search engine in response to a keyword quer ...

based on that.

Voice Search

Petal Search supports voice search for English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Turkish and other languages.

News Search

Petal Search crawls and lists results from news outlets.

Video Search

Petal Search provides users specifically with video

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

s if chosen by the user. If a general query returns video results it will also be included in the results page.

App Search

Petal Search offers a

mobile application A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

search functionality which allows users to search the AppGallery and other third-party sources.

Shopping Search

Users can search for consumer products on Petal Search and then follow a link to the online store if they wish to make a purchase.

Travel Search

A flight reservation function is available on Petal Search. Users can also book hotels or search for information on flights such as the arrival time. Nearby restaurants, local tourist spots and attractions and local events can also be searched for.

Local Search

The Near Me function facilitate finding local businesses, nearby products and services and consumer reviews. Data providers: Uberall,

Tripadvisor Tripadvisor is an American company that operates online travel agency, travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content. Its namesake brand, Tripadvisor.com, operates in 40 countries and 20 languages, and ...

, Yell, Foursquare and more.

Third-party App Stores

Petal Search is a mobile search engine and also provides users who are searching for mobile phone applications with results from the AppGallery (

's official

app store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

) and other third-party stores. When a user searches for an app, Petal Search includes results from "trusted" app stores. This feature is integrated with the AppGallery.

Design

Petal Search’s logo design is based on the shape of a

magnifying glass A magnifying glass is a convex lens—usually mounted in a frame with a handle—that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. A magnifying glass can also be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the Sun's radiation to create ...

. The main focus is currently to develop the service for mobile devices, therefore its design is rooted in a “ mobile-first” approach. It also offers a "

dark mode A light-on-dark color scheme, better known as dark mode, dark theme or night mode, is a color scheme that uses light-colored text, icons, and graphical user interface elements on a dark background. It is often discussed in terms of computer ...

" option.

Availability

Petal Search is active in different markets around the world, currently focusing its operations in European countries, mainly in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. As of November 2021, Petal Search supports 55 languages and is available in 170 countries and regions around the world. Currently, Petal Search application is available to download in Huawei AppGallery and

Apple App Store The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...

References

Internet search engines Huawei mobile software {{Web search engines navbox