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Apple's Eddy Cue Explains Why Google is iPhone's Default Search Engine
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Why? [serious question]I tried to make Duck Duck Go my default, but keep returning to Google.
The only criteria for being a valid alternative is willingness to pay billions of dollars to Apple.
There are plenty of functionally suitable alternatives including DuckDuckGo, and even Bing.
There are plenty of functionally suitable alternatives including DuckDuckGo, and even Bing.
‘Great business’ So it’s one big circlejerk and everyone's happy.
Ever heard of privacy concerns? I'm happy to go with ‘not quite as good’ (i.e. DDG) if the search engine isn't trying to prise every fact about my income/health/status/whereabouts/Trotskyite affiliations/behaviour each time I touch my Mac. See also Little Snitch for what Google reports when you're not even active on your Mac...
Eh, it makes sense to me. I get the arguments against it, but I believe there’s a good chance Google could or would be the default even without the money.
I used Yahoo! and AltaVista and whatever else and then, Google. Now, I'm using DuckDuckGo and only fall back to Google when absolutely necessary.
But that's not true anymore. Google's search results have become absolute garbage. You can't even use quotes to find exact matches anymore, they're straight up ignored by default, and if you force it it'll often give zero results.
DuckDuckGo meanwhile has been slowly improving over time...
DuckDuckGo meanwhile has been slowly improving over time...
I love that Apple negotiated a search deal that allows us to Google things without signing in. Yes there's a monetary incentive for Apple, but they have really come down hard on the side of privacy by giving us full access to Google without sign in. This is a win for consumers.
Interviewer:
So tell me Mr Cue, why is Google still the default search engine?
Eddy:
I'm being facetious obviously. Personally I default to DuckDuckGo for 95% of my searches, but I have a Google bookmark for when I need something that's a bit more topical or time sensitive which Google seems to handle better since it's syphoning all that zeitgeist-ey data.
So tell me Mr Cue, why is Google still the default search engine?
Eddy:
I'm being facetious obviously. Personally I default to DuckDuckGo for 95% of my searches, but I have a Google bookmark for when I need something that's a bit more topical or time sensitive which Google seems to handle better since it's syphoning all that zeitgeist-ey data.
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I honestly can't really put my finger on it. Perhaps the perception of better search, and a better looking interface. Or, maybe I'm just comfortable, getting old and less apt to change.
Which has me thinking: I'm going to give DDG another go as a default starting right now.
Exactly - I wrote feedback to Apple requesting the ability to add Brave Search in Safari. They should add Kagi too.
Brave Search is actually quite accurate, fast, and clean.
I don't get the arguments against it: 1. Google is paying Apple, which is good for Apple and 2. Google is still the best search engine, even with Bing's recent improvements
I remember when, before Yahoo! went under, Marissa Meyer sent a whole team to Apple to work out a deal to make Yahoo! the default search engine (at the time, Yahoo! was powered by Bing) and Apple shut them down, leaving the meeting unimpressed.
It would have been a huge coupe for Yahoo! and would have saved the company, along with Marissa's legacy, post Tumblr acquisition.
iCloud. But yes you’re right. So far the ads come after initial setup. I’m afraid it might not stay that way for long but yes Apple remains the least annoying about most things but subscription services don’t create good incentives for it to stay that way.
Almost all of the search engines are crap now. I like mojeek, but they need to expand their dataset and improve their search syntax. Google and others are the search engines to push large, corporation owned sites and you can't find any of the smaller specialty sites, or those critical of a large company's product or products and the old privacy oriented sites have been bought up by advertising agencies, like startpage was. SEO has also ruined the results - there's very few bits of information i can search for on Google without the engine assuming I'm trying to shop for something. DDG has been going downhill as well - you either get way too many non-relevant results or nothing at all using their syntax.
I'd like to try using the AI systems available to do the searches and weed out the ads, keyword parroting sites and other bs, but I don't expect the larger AI systems made by companies that also do search engine sites to allow that for very long, if they even allow it now.
It's not surprising. Here in the US, they pretty much control everything. Meaningful warranties and guarantees are disappearing, arbitration clauses are in everything, many companies (ahem) won't admit to a product defect until they get slapped with a class action suit and arbitration clauses are trying their best to make class actions impossible to initiate, and product return periods for many items have disappeared or been shortened to hours. It's ridiculous here, we are all pretty much second class "persons", compared to a corporate entity that also has a personhood by law.
I'd like to try using the AI systems available to do the searches and weed out the ads, keyword parroting sites and other bs, but I don't expect the larger AI systems made by companies that also do search engine sites to allow that for very long, if they even allow it now.
It's not surprising. Here in the US, they pretty much control everything. Meaningful warranties and guarantees are disappearing, arbitration clauses are in everything, many companies (ahem) won't admit to a product defect until they get slapped with a class action suit and arbitration clauses are trying their best to make class actions impossible to initiate, and product return periods for many items have disappeared or been shortened to hours. It's ridiculous here, we are all pretty much second class "persons", compared to a corporate entity that also has a personhood by law.
From the story text:
"Cue acknowledged that Apple feels it is more committed to privacy than Google, but argued that the deal between the two companies requires Google to allow users to search without logging in, and said that Apple has built several privacy protections into its Safari web browser in order to ensure that users are safeguarded."