Amazon A9 Executive Joins Apple to Work on Maps, App Store Search

[MacRumors]

Benoit Dupin, the Vice President of Amazon A9?s Search Technology group, has left his position at the online retailer to join Apple, reports 9to5Mac. Dupin's profile recently was removed from Amazon's A9 website, and Dupin's LinkedIn profile now reflects his new position as Director at Apple.

At Amazon, Dupin worked in the A9 group, which powers product search and advertising throughout Amazon's international web stores. Dupin has experience working with search infrastructure, search experience and search relevance at Amazon. He also held positions at HP, Easyplanet and Canon Research France.

Dupin is joining Apple as a possible replacement for the exiting Cathy Edwards of Chomp, who joined Apple when the Cupertino company acquired the smartphone app search engine. Edwards served as the Director of Evaluation and Quality for Apple Maps, iTunes Store and App Store. Dupin will assume a similar role as Edwards, bringing his search expertise to those product areas within Apple.

Dupin's exact role at Apple in not known, but his search expertise could be utilized in Apple's Maps as well as its iTunes and App Store, all of which have been criticized for their undependable search results. The company regularly tweaks its search algorithm within its App Store, recently adding a new search suggestion feature for iOS owners. Apple also is rumored to be working on improving the Maps experience in iOS 8 with new transit Directions and improved points of interest data.

Article Link: Amazon A9 Executive Joins Apple to Work on Maps, App Store Search

 

[jonnysods]

Real professional pic mate.

 

[samcraig]

Real professional pic mate.

And that matters because?

 

[realeric]

I don't know who he is and don't want to know.... but wish anybody improves map search. Apple maps's search algorithm is horrible.

 

[maflynn]

Hopefully this hiring will help in improving apple maps, though its gotten better for me

 

[Nozuka]

google, bing and maybe iSearch soon

 

[JaySoul]

Perfect appointment considering Apple has been dupin' us into using Maps for 2 years now.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

They need to hire more.

 

[bawbac]

Perfect appointment considering Apple has been dupin' us into using Maps for 2 years now.

Ding!

one that is easily deceived or cheated : fool

 

[runeapple]

Apple things are generally crap at search the AppStore and Maps are useless unless you type exactly want you want most of the time - if Apple can perfect search it will help them in the long run - and maybe they won't have to relay on third parties like Bing for Siri.

I would say Finder is the best search Apple has done but even that is far from perfect.

 

[Rogifan]

Wait...I thought everyone was leaving Apple and going to their competitors because Cook is a horrible CEO and Apple is doomed.

 

[winston1236]

Its kind of weird how Macrumors creeps on LinkedIn profiles.

 

[TimeSquareDesi]

He's looking at me and the soda machine at the same time.

 

[Popeye206]

I don't know who he is and don't want to know.... but wish anybody improves map search. Apple maps's search algorithm is horrible.

I wouldn't say horrible… within the last year, it's been fairly good and I've started seeing (in some cases) where I've looked things up on Google and it's been wrong, but Apple Maps has it right. I think they're improving very quickly and any experts they can add to the team will just make it better.

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google, bing and maybe iSearch soon

Bing? Is that still out there?

 

[dannyyankou]

Apple maps has already improved to the point that I prefer it over google, but I guess any additional improvements would be nice.

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Its kind of weird how Macrumors creeps on LinkedIn profiles.

9to5Mac discovered it.

 

[Eduardo1971]

Its kind of weird how Macrumors creeps on LinkedIn profiles.

This was reported on another site prior to MR reporting it.

 

[k4rrjin]

"Benoit" - "BALLS"!

 

[Jsameds]

Real professional pic mate.

He seems to be doing all right for himself..

 

[duffman9000]

I don't know who he is and don't want to know.... but wish anybody improves map search. Apple maps's search algorithm is horrible.

Yes, yes it is. And sometimes it's not due to missing data: sometimes it requires exact addresses. When I'm looking for a UPS on Street X I'm not looking for the street in another country.

 

[samcraig]

Wait...I thought everyone was leaving Apple and going to their competitors because Cook is a horrible CEO and Apple is doomed.

No!! People are staying around to complain about their 4.6" phones and brand new iWatches and AppleTVs!!!!

 

[mdelvecchio]

"Not a good sign at all!"

"I fear they are doomed!"

"This is very troubling..."

"I'm so worried, this would never have happened under..."

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Perfect appointment considering Apple has been dupin' us into using Maps for 2 years now.

works great here.

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They need to hire more.

how do you know they aren't? are you in management meetings or HR?

 

[Bhatu]

Apple recently acquired some app discovery related company and now this. Maybe app/content search will be the coolest feature of iTV/iOS8/iStore.

 

[machpost]

Real professional pic mate.

After seeeing the name and the picture, my first impression was that they must have hired this guy because they're gearing up to add Cajun French as a language option on the iPhone

 

[everything-i]

Real professional pic mate.

If he's got the skills who cares. After all they hired John Browett who wares nice suits and 'looks the part' and he was total crap.

 

[nagromme]

Apple's search can be pretty weak... I never noticed how good Amazon's is, which suggests it "just works!" You shouldn't have to notice. (I do wish Amazon's "revelance" ranking were less of a crazy mess.)

But even the low-hanging fruit of detecting/fixing common misspellings would boost Apple's store search results. I think they do a little of that, so they have the ability... why not do it nearly ALL the time?? Something's neglected.