jelly bean search key

Question

In my Android app I enable my specific app-search to be triggered via the search key in a number of my activities using this mechanism from the manifest

    <meta-data 
        android:name="android.app.default_searchable"
        android:value=".Search.SearchActivity" />

with the appropriate search activity. This all worked fine until recently.

With the Jelly Bean update the Search Key now always starts Google NOW search functionality.

On this site: http://www.android.com/about/jelly-bean/ I found in the "Google Search" section this statement:

"For devices with a hardware search key, you can tap it to launch Google Search."

Has Google taken over all use of this key completely, or is there a way to recover it?

If I can't recover it, then it's UI design changes in almost all activities to add a Search menu option or action button....

Answer 1

This has been done specifically to circumvent patent issue. This has been mostly done only in USA, where apple recently got an injunction on galaxy nexus. So all Android phones in USA will show this behavior from now on. So most of the apps in jelly bean have a on screen search button.