Google Reportedly Pays Apple $8-12 Billion Per Year to be Default iOS Search Engine

[pcmike]

If the government prevails, What’s to stop Apple from just building its own search engine... and setting that to the default in iOS and MacOS? Given that Apple has such a large user base, If the new engine is good enough such that most users simply don’t care to change it, then the outcome will be the government will have moved millions if not billions of users off of Google search onto Apple search.

And if that happens, what happens to the so-called small-guy competitor search engine (bing?) that the government is alleging to protect ? I don’t see how they will benefit.

And if this blatant government interference comes to play and causes google to lose a significant portion of its traffic and ultimately revenue, it would be awesome to see google sue the government. Country that espouses freedom, free market and capitalism.. goes after the default search engine on popular smartphone and results in less freedom, hurts capitalism and ultimately waste tax payer money. What a waste, the government should stay in their lane and work on more important things that truly have a significant impact on the citizens in this country. ?

 

[ian87w]

Wait wait. Let me try to understand the logic behind this. Since I'm not an American, I don't really quite understand the logic behind this.

So the Justice department questioned on how Google paid Apple to be the default search engine on iOS.
But there's an option to choose other search engines on iOS. I mean whether Google paid Apple or not don't seem to be the point as Google is not the exclusive search engine anyway. Am I not seeing anything wrong here? It's a transaction between two parties, and it doesn't close out the option for other search engines anyway. Or is this just because there's a large sum of money involved that some people want a piece of the pie?

The only "wrong" thing that Apple should fix is maybe to offer user the search engine choice when they first setup iOS. But defaults aren't necessarily anti-competitive per se.

Speaking of search engines, for international content, it's hard to beat Google. I use Edge as my primary browser, but I change the search engine to Google, simply because for non-English/US results, Google is just better than others, even Bing. I mean search is Google's main bread and butter, so it is expected that they are the best.

 

[logicstudiouser]

Seems crazy to me that Google has to pay anything. Most people prefer to use Google search. I guess Google does not want to be sleep at the wheel and see another search engine take over their dominance in this area.

I would love to see search engines like DuckDuckGo gain more prominence, but their still imo not at the level of quality as Google search. Hopefully that will change in the future.

 

[ian87w]

Seems crazy to me that Google has to pay anything. Most people prefer to use Google search. I guess Google does not want to be sleep at the wheel and see another search engine take over their dominance in this area.

I would love to see search engines like DuckDuckGo gain more prominence, but their still imo not at the level of quality as Google search. Hopefully that will change in the future.

It could be an old deal that predates the current situation. Remember in the early days, Yahoo was still a thing. Steve Jobs had both Erich Schmidt and Jerry Yang on the stage during the first iPhone announcement. And there's no Android yet. So Google probably thought "alright, let's make a deal with Steve so Yahoo won't beat us to this emerging platform."

Imo Apple could simply rectify this by showing up a selection of search engines during first time setup. It worked for Microsoft with the EU.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

sheesh...$8B just to be the default , not the exclusive search engine!
How much data are they harvesting and selling from just plain searches?!

Google doesn’t actually sell data. They sell ads based on the data they harvest. That’s their whole competitive advantage. The reason why it’s so valuable is because most people don’t bother changing their search engine and it’s free ad money for Google over the rest of the time the user stays on iOS.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Seems crazy to me that Google has to pay anything. Most people prefer to use Google search. I guess Google does not want to be sleep at the wheel and see another search engine take over their dominance in this area.

I would love to see search engines like DuckDuckGo gain more prominence, but their still imo not at the level of quality as Google search. Hopefully that will change in the future.

You’d be surprised at how many people can’t tell the difference or don’t care enough to know who is handling the services. So many people I meet still thinks the default Apple maps is Google maps even after almost 10 years.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Let's face it, many outside of these forum's walls would pick google given a choice anyway.

Many inside these forums already do pick Google, even though there is a choice.

Every so often I give ddg a run, but the results it provides aren’t anywhere near as relevantly ranked as Google’s.

 

[jimbobb24]

Sometimes, anti-competitive practices require anti-monopoly actions, in response. But sometimes monopolies are 'natural', in which case the only solution is to nationalize them.

Google, Apple, they should all be run by the state, as public services

A “natural monopoly” is called that because usually they are constrained by some physical reality - like pipes in the ground or electric wires. I cannot imagine how that applies to Apple or Google. (Not that they might not be illegal monopolies...)

 

[jimbobb24]

Non-profit companies... ?

They are all about money just not “profits”. In some states all health care must be non profit and their CEOs are still paid amazing money.

 

[PickUrPoison]

How do you know it went to the highest bidder?

Ask Microsoft if they were willing to pay more than Google. (They aren’t.)

But there can be considerations besides money to prefer one deal over another. There’s no open auction process where highest bidder wins.

 

[Madhatter32]

Sometimes, anti-competitive practices require anti-monopoly actions, in response. But sometimes monopolies are 'natural', in which case the only solution is to nationalize them.

Google, Apple, they should all be run by the state, as public services

Apple and Google are governed by US law, thankfully. So, this will never happen nor should it.

 

[jinnj]

How much is Firefox making from Google. This is not anything new. Like paying for shelf space at a market. In fact, Apple's take got reduced when they added Bing and other search engines as options.

 

[tranceking26]

Many inside these forums already do pick Google, even though there is a choice.

Every so often I give ddg a run, but the results it provides aren’t anywhere near as relevantly ranked as Google’s.

Me too, I tried it a few times but it was never as good as google.

 

[jinnj]

The Privacy Emperor has no clothes.

It's not like they are hiding the fact that you are using Google and this is for the web browser. You do have an option and I will bet that the majority of the users will complain if you give them DuckDuckGo results over Google's. DDG is just not there yet, I use it every day and I still need to !g a query a few times a day.

 

[Lancer]

I have a Yahoo email account but I can't remember the last time I did a yahoo search.

 

[jinnj]

Apple should adquiere DuckDuckGo

They don't need to run a search engine. Now if Google starts crippling iOS searches over Android (similar to Google Maps) then Apple will acquire whoever is available and switchover.

 

[4jasontv]

If the government prevails, What’s to stop Apple from just building its own search engine... and setting that to the default in iOS and MacOS?

Not being good at everything?

 

[loby]

Wait wait. Let me try to understand the logic behind this. Since I'm not an American, I don't really quite understand the logic behind this.

So the Justice department questioned on how Google paid Apple to be the default search engine on iOS.
But there's an option to choose other search engines on iOS. I mean whether Google paid Apple or not don't seem to be the point as Google is not the exclusive search engine anyway. Am I not seeing anything wrong here? It's a transaction between two parties, and it doesn't close out the option for other search engines anyway. Or is this just because there's a large sum of money involved that some people want a piece of the pie?

The only "wrong" thing that Apple should fix is maybe to offer user the search engine choice when they first setup iOS. But defaults aren't necessarily anti-competitive per se.

Speaking of search engines, for international content, it's hard to beat Google. I use Edge as my primary browser, but I change the search engine to Google, simply because for non-English/US results, Google is just better than others, even Bing. I mean search is Google's main bread and butter, so it is expected that they are the best.

The thing that is left out of the equation is "who" is really influencing the reason to go after Google (not a fan of) and Apple...

Ummm...Microsoft is VERY influential in the U.S. Government and influences (Umm...."controls") many of its infrastructure as to date..

The unseen fuel for the fire...

 

[derekamoss]

Careful what you wish for.

Bing, for example.

I don't get why people rag on bing. I have been using it for years and haven't had a problem with it and I have saved so much money using my award points for xbox live subscriptions. It finds anything I search for and has a better layout IMO.

 

[farewelwilliams]

That is indeed what you said, actually. That Apple could then turn around and reinvest that money into different things.

Apple reinvests the money they got from Google back into Apple Sign In and Safari.
I am giving reasons why Apple is sticking with Google as the default search engine. No where did I say Apple is paying Google. Do you understand now?

 

[mannyvel]

Many inside these forums already do pick Google, even though there is a choice.

Every so often I give ddg a run, but the results it provides aren’t anywhere near as relevantly ranked as Google’s.

It's funny, I've been using DDG for years. When I switch back go Google their results almost always suck. I generally search for technical things, but in general if I can't find what I want on DDG I try google and it doesn't show up there either.

My kids use the goog due to school, and when I look at the results they get the solutions tend to be 2nd-tier as well. The promotional nature of search has polluted their core product.

 

[ghanwani]

Which is why Google created Android. Why pay someone else when you can give a phone OS away for free for less.
They don't care about Android, it isn't their business. They care only about search.

They don't care about search. They care about advertising.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

But Apple cares about privacy! This and allowing Facebook to continue to operate shows what Apple really cares about.

 

[steve62388]

I mean search is Google's main bread and butter, so it is expected that they are the best.

Did you mean advertising?

 

[kidaje]

And how much money does Google make on this deal?