Loosing 20 billion is the problem, all this corporate crap talk is just that…crap.
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Apple Explains Why It Doesn't Plan to Create a Search Engine
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Yes. Siri is not fully evolved into using Generative AI. Its first endeavor is having ChatGPT as an extension. More will come.
Siri will evolve at her own pace.
I agree, it’s still a huge chunk of money. But Eddie made it sound like 80% of their R&D is funded by Google. That’s what I found really funny.
This is the part I really like:
- In order to create a "viable" search engine business, Apple would be required to "sell targeted advertising," which is "not a core business" for the company and would go against its "longstanding privacy commitments."
Crawling and indexing the entire web is a huge expense. Storing the data is a huge expense. Providing a search service using the data you found and stored is a huge expense. Search engines are a proxy between the user and the endpoint they seek.
The primary way this even becomes profitable is to leverage this proxy position through marketing services. The search engine service is not a charity funded by the pot of gold found at the end of a rainbow. The trick is providing a 'free' service without your customer's thinking they are your revenue source. In the Internet Age, being that proxy between a user and an endpoint can be a powerful position. ChatGPT is just a proxy to the proxy.
Apple can't serve two masters - keep YOUR data private while servicing companies who are after your details.
The primary way this even becomes profitable is to leverage this proxy position through marketing services. The search engine service is not a charity funded by the pot of gold found at the end of a rainbow. The trick is providing a 'free' service without your customer's thinking they are your revenue source. In the Internet Age, being that proxy between a user and an endpoint can be a powerful position. ChatGPT is just a proxy to the proxy.
Apple can't serve two masters - keep YOUR data private while servicing companies who are after your details.
Thai is a joke, right?
You do know that this is exactly what Apple offers on iPhones in the EU under the most recent regulations, don’t you?
You’re trolling us, aren’t you?
You forgot to name DuckDuckGo in the list which is well known for protecting the privacy of the user. If Apple really cared about this, they should use a search engine what does that.
Instead they chose googles for $20.000.000.000 a year. Say’s something about how high they treat your privacy.
Wish Apple invested that $20.000.000.000 from Google into their own software offerings. I’m convinced Siri and all their other offerings would be in a far better state.
Apple Maps is not a paid service. It is not supported by ad revenue and data tracking like at Google and other places. As you said, Apple is staying core to who it is. It implemented Maps as a part of their ecosystem, across Siri, Spotlight, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Weather, Photos, and Safari. It works seamlessly between Mac, iPhone, iPad, CarPlay, and Apple Watch. My personal data remains private.
So, in what sense did they "miss" Maps? They weren't first to rush to market with a system to collect your data and sell it?
We shall see with AI. From all evidence, it appears as if Apple is taking a similar approach to what they did with maps. They are implementing it as a set of features across their ecosystem. And, in their initial offering, their writing tools (available in every Apple and non-Apple app that uses the textbox APIs) work passably well throughout the system. Are they perfect? No, but I don't have to worry about someone selling my data. Will they get better? Of course.
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DuckDuckGo is already in the list of search engines that Apple allows as a default. I've tried every alternative to Google that I could find. DuckDuckGo sucks. It's full of ads. Its results aren't as good as Google.
When Apple uses Google as an implicit search engine behind Siri, it does not send any PII or private data to Google. Safari allows you to prevent ad-tracking redirects and cookies. I suggest you enable the feature. Then pull up its report and notice how it blocks redirects from Google website trackers more than any other company. [As an aside, I just looked at the report. Safari tells me that over the last 30 days it has blocked MacRumors.com from sending data about me to 121 different websites. Google clocks in at 6.]
How highly does Apple treat my privacy? Quite a bit higher than any other company.
Apple spends over $20 billion a year on R&D.
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Here’s the thing though from what I heard from talking with people in the industry for years: Back when Steve Jobs was still alive, around 2010, Apple WAS going to make a search engine that would rival Google and in fact would be better than Google, just out of spite because of Android. Jobs wanted nothing to do with Google afterwards, and in fact, wanted to kill and destroy Google, and going after the core, which was the search engine would be the way to do it. And they had zero intention of monetizing it either, it was just a search engine with page ranking and etc and nothing else. It would serve as useful function for the users and it would be what would power Siri.
Plans changed after Jobs died and Apple decided to drop the hammer on this project despite the fact that many wanted to keep this project to preserve and respect Steve Job’s legacy of his hatred toward Google. But if Apple did continued with the project, it would have fundamentally changed the web forever.
Yeah, but that $20 billion is approximately 80% of their R&D budget. If they went on a cost cutting binge across all units, they might cut $5 billion (laying off lots people in the process). So, where does that remaining $15 billion loss hit. Either R&D or profit. If it all hits profit, Apple's stock tanks with all the chaos and consequences that follow. If it all hits R&D, Apple lays off tons of engineers, and then stock tanks with all the chaos and consequences that follow. If profits drop and engineers are laid off? You can just hear the anti-Apple jackals in the world salivating at the prospect.
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And yet Google shows me all the advertisements related to my search.
Not every bet works out. And, who knows what tech investigated for the car ends up in an update to CarPlay or even future products. Wouldn’t be the first time a failed R&D project ended up providing a base to a future technology.
The fact of the matter is with the possible exception of Kagi, Google is far and away the best search engine, even if Google Search is much worse than it used to be.
Since Apple is never going to set a paid option as a default, Google makes sense from a user experience perspective, even if their privacy practices leave much to be desired. And Apple allows those who care enough about privacy to change the default.
Everything is a trade off. I think Apple made the right choice, particularly considering the money Google was paying to be the default. I also suspect that Google would be the default regardless of the money, but obviously it’s in Google’s interest to not make that bet.
I think it will get extinct or on the red list when it’s evolving in the pace it’s doing now 🤭
I have assiduously eliminated Google from every part of my online life, at least to the extent I am aware of. I never use Google to search; never purchase any products that use Google as a search engine, e.g., doorbells, home security or use Google to monitor anything, e.g., thermostats. Apple might not be perfect, but has at least prioritized privacy in Safari and in their devices. Everything and everyone would be fine if Apple simply eliminated the option or at worst, just left them as an alphabetized option to be selected after purchase of a device. Google is evil and uses you as the product they really sell.
"longstanding privacy commitments."
and they allow google has the default search engine for years?
This is ********.
and they allow google has the default search engine for years?
This is ********.
From reading what Eddy Cue has to say they don’t have enough specialized persons to do so and would take them away from other projects that is needing their attention.
In other words: Apple is short on specialized software engineers.
Maybe they could hire some more of the 20 billion its getting from Google.
They’re fallen behind in software and the quality of their software is falling too.
Anyone noticed that an installed app on your iOS device keeps growing in size by time? Happens to every app. To solve this and free up space you have to remove it and install again. Doesn’t behave like that on Android.
I can make a long list of bugs. Some of them are years old.
In other words: Apple is short on specialized software engineers.
Maybe they could hire some more of the 20 billion its getting from Google.
They’re fallen behind in software and the quality of their software is falling too.
Anyone noticed that an installed app on your iOS device keeps growing in size by time? Happens to every app. To solve this and free up space you have to remove it and install again. Doesn’t behave like that on Android.
I can make a long list of bugs. Some of them are years old.
And if they set DuckDuckGo as the default there would be hundreds of posts on MacRumors from people saying “Look how anticompetitive Apple is, they selected an obviously inferior search engine as the default just to avoid giving data to Google. Whatever happened to when you buy Apple you’re paying extra for the best experience ”
Seriously, what’s the alternative?
Here Here! When I wanted to look up neon (the gas) I wanted the boiling point, I didn't want to buy it. DuckDuckGo is rebadged Bing and assumes I want to buyout just neon, but Chinese neon.
