Job Listings Spark Speculation of Unlikely Full-Fledged Apple Search Engine

[fluchtpunkt]

A web search engine by Apple?

businesses will start to register domains like newspaper-free-for-iOS-8-with-twitter-facebook-emoji-sharing-friends.com to get to the front ranks of Apples incredible search algorithm.

 

[Jsameds]

So if it's unlikely, why write a news article on it?

MacRUMORS

Hey, an Apple branded phone was unlikely at one point..

 

[MH01]

If this were to be true, I really hope Apple learns from maps, and when they are about to launch...... wait for another 2 years and launch, I will still be far behind google, but it will not be embarrassing.

Stick to hardware Apple, its best you partner up when it comes to services.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

A search for Apple products.

 

[kimble3]

Yahoo!

This might actually be a good time to consider an acquisition of Yahoo. Yahoo just spun off their investment in Alibaba and Apple could probably pick up the rest of the company for dirt cheap.

Search engines generate a huge amount of ad revenue and I think Apple would like to have more control over the advertising on their devices. In addition, I think Yahoo has a lot of data feeds that could be integrated into Siri and other iOS services. Financial data is one prime example.

 

[Moonjumper]

Oh please no. Services is not something Apple is good at

iTunes is a market leading service by Apple.

The iOS App Store is great, except for search. Hopefully that is where the new search employee(s) will be working when found.

 

[Aluminum213]

An Apple search engine? HA


Apple maps today still hasn't caught up to google maps from 5-6 years ago. Stick to hardware

 

[zubikov]

No Maps without search

They finally realized that you can't have a modern maps app without modern search functionality. The reason many stopped using Apple maps boils down to irrelevant/incorrect searches. For example, if I live in NJ and start typing a street name a few miles away, it will return a street in New Zealand. If I search for a gas station in midtown Manhattan, maps will return Hess corporate offices, some company with the word "energy" in it, but no actual gas stations.

I doubt this will ever translate into full blown search sites. We're most likely looking at improved Siri, spotlight and maps (if we're lucky).

 

[Alphabetize]

Oh please no. Services is not something Apple is good at

But it would be the prettiest!

 

[darrenoia]

I too think that improving maps search and store search is, or at least should be, the main priority. However, I don't think it's so far-fetched to imagine Apple getting into the general search business. As part of the Thermonuclear war on Google, yes, but also because there's a room for an ad-free search alternative. All it would take would be for Apple to make their search engine the default in Safari. If – and I admit this is a pretty big if – Apple search turned out to be even 90% as good as Google's, it would be tempting for many people to gravitate to it if they knew that the results were unbiased by paid advertisers. This is intriguing. That said, they are pretty much the worst search engine in the world right now, based on search in the iTunes Store and Apple maps.

 

[SpiderDude]

Blackberry search

Did anyone here used to have a Blackberry?
Man, I miss that ever present ability to just start typing (while in the home screen) and stuff would just pop up categorized by type and there was a final option to just Google search your entry.
Fastest way of starting to listen to a music in you phone or just call someone who you don't call that often..

 

[Matthew Yohe]

So if it's unlikely, why write a news article on it?

"Sketchy iPhone 6 Images Said to be Sourced from Foxconn Surface" - Monday March 31, 2014
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/31/foxconn-iphone-6-images/

 

[KALLT]

They should just buy DuckDuckGo

I don’t think that will happen.

If they indeed develop their own search engine, I hope they don’t make the same mistake as with Apple Maps (i.e. removing Google Search or Bing altogether). DuckDuckGo could receive a great boost if it was integrated more deeply and it would serve Apple’s agenda on privacy-consciousness as well.

Spotlight.com

My thought as well. It’s perfect: functional and familiar name, quality Apple brand; they even own the trademark associated with search. I really hope they don’t name it ‘Search’.

1. It's for online search
When you say crawl ("data crawled from the Internet", from Apple, which does not make sense at iOS 8/OS X Yosemite since they forward the search to Bing), it means Internet search. That's the definition of crawler (the software that crawl): indexer that continuously follow every links to recursively index all the linked sites.

2. Why are you surprised? Apple has already collect thousands of Open Search API (check your Safari Preference). Just by building a cache system in between can provide a sufficient amount of quality of search.

e.g. When you search Raymond Reddington, the server will crawl all topic/site-based search engine. Let's say the wikia for blacklist return a result, it will have a higher quality that what you got in Google because it's an entry of specific topic, not just a website mention the name.
And when spotlight to display the page, Apple can caching the result, record whether you click on it, and build a webpage index that people actually read. Google is building their own by PageRank. But the problem is: it can only how much the page is trustworthy, but not "whether the user will click on it", which is the only goal in search engine.
In fact, by recording the search query, Apple can actually build a list of words that you will actually say, which in term could potentially allowing them to build their own voice recognition system, or at least an accurate dictionary of words you will actually say.

And even if you don't believe all those stuff above (you really need to learn how it works to appreciate the value of those data), you seriously believe Apple adopt an Amazon 2005 protocol in 2014 just for the "goodness in their hearts"?

3. In fact, even if Apple doesn't want to do it to harm Google, they have should a workable prototype as the next generation of Spotlight.
I mean, the only way to get context based search result (e.g. based on location, time, calendar, files, topic you just search) is by building your own search engine, since the amount of data set is so big there's worth tenth of dollars per customers. Who have access to all these beside Google, MS and Apple?
The goal is so sweet, Apple should have worked on it to demo at next event.

Thumbs up. We shouldn’t forget that Apple has been doing search for years. Sherlock, Spotlight, Siri. They have the knowledge and technology. Besides, the killer apps of search engines these days are vertical search results, i.e. entries that give you the information without you having to go to the specific website. Apple has been doing these for years now as well. We’re moving away from the traditional ’ten blue links’ to computed results with a more natural input (no formulaic keywords and operators).

 

[redhawk87]

There are only two possible reasons and only one good reason for apple to go into the search engine business:

1. There are two contributing factors in Siri returning optimal results: Apple discerning the question correctly and a 3rd party (for ex. Yelp) returning the correct results based on the question provided by Siri. In order for Apple to ensure control in optimal results, they would need to own both parts of the decision making. This would require some sort of apple search engine. This, to me, is the most likely argument for an apple search engine. One that is hidden behind Siri/spotlight.

2. The default web search in safari. Currently they are relying on Google which is a huge competitor. This is unlikely though. First, I think apple would make the search engine only useable by people connected into the Apple ecosystem (maybe through iCloud?). Secondly, I think Apple would want to make it the only option for searching in safari. Making it the only option would be seen by many governements as a monopolistic play and force them to allow competitors such as Google. Since it is not feasible to make this hyperthetical search engine the only option on safari, I do not think Apple will waste their time with it.

 

[CraigB1960]

All it would take would be for Apple to make their search engine the default in Safari. If – and I admit this is a pretty big if – Apple search turned out to be even 90% as good as Google's, it would be tempting for many people to gravitate to it if they knew that the results were unbiased by paid advertisers.

I agree and is a logical extension for them. Consider the huge data farms they currently own and now planning to build as announced yesterday. I for one would welcome a secure and unbiased search engine provider to replace Google.

As far as Apple being a horrible service provider, I disagree. I use Apple Maps all the time and it is usually just as good as my Garmin app, and it's getting better. Let's not forget the game changer iTunes was and is to the music industry.

People that say Apple should stick to hardware are missing the point. I don't use Apple products for their hardware, I use their products because of their software and the software that drives their user interface; which in my book is a service they provide.

 

[xraydoc]

Apple should buy Yahoo!.

It's likely just pocket change compared to what Apple has in the bank.

 

[elmateo487]

Apple should just stick to hardware.

Yeah I agree. They should just sell iPhones that have Android installed on them.

 

[KALLT]

Apple should buy Yahoo!.

It's likely just pocket change compared to what Apple has in the bank.

Yahoo doesn’t have its own search engine anymore, it’s powered by Bing as well. Buying them would not give Apple many advantages and I doubt they are even interested in the online portal.

 

[EthanLMT]

Newbie, non-rhetorical question:

Would a successful company that likes to keep its competitors guessing periodically post fake job listings?

Possibly, I know I would...

----------

Hey, an Apple branded phone was unlikely at one point..

Sort of like that's idea of having a digital jukebox in your pocket that let's you choose any song you want to listen to whenever you want. Boy did that fail...

 

[MacHiavelli]

I like the way we have stories about possible street-view cars and Apple getting into search on the same day; especially with those stories coming one day after Google's share of search fell to below 75% for the first time in years.

Someone is shaking Google's tree.

 

[Mashurrab]

So if it's unlikely, why write a news article on it?

Because they need to put food on the table

 

[redheeler]

Apple should just stick to hardware.

Just who do you think writes their software, which currently consists of two fully fledged OSes and a variety of different apps for each one?

 

[wizard]

Sounds like a job about Siri, not Spotlight.

Actually I think it is Siri that will compel Apple to do more inhouse. Search and Siri are tightly linked if you think about it, Siri can't even work without the ability to search for timely data. Sure part of Siris excellence is related finding static data but that is only part of what a good AI should do.

In a nut shell Apple needs a data warehouse, knowledge base if you will to keep Siri efficient. This might not be so much as an attempt to ove away from Google as it an attempt to not bother with Google for data Apple can maintain themsleves.

 

[happywaiman]

Thumbs up. We shouldn’t forget that Apple has been doing search for years. Sherlock, Spotlight, Siri. They have the knowledge and technology. Besides, the killer apps of search engines these days are vertical search results, i.e. entries that give you the information without you having to go to the specific website. Apple has been doing these for years now as well. We’re moving away from the traditional ’ten blue links’ to computed results with a more natural input (no formulaic keywords and operators).

I wouldn't count Siri in the mix.
For one they didn't do dramatic changes to the architecture. They just forward the query to Wolfram, Bing and search their own command list, and all they did for the last few iOS update is add stuff in their command list. Which is stupid, because Siri is the future of the IT world, especially for the wearable device and smartphone technology. (And no, it's not putting it on OS X. Microsoft must be as stuck as Google in this. )
In fact I wonder if the only thing Apple could come up with iOS 9 is a Apple neural network based voice recognition system. I mean, this is not a bad thing, but I expect more from a company that "do the right thing".

But Sherlock and Spotlight would be a great example, given this move would be "Apple 'wastoned' Google. "

 

[wizard]

So the common idea here is: Apple map is not good and past services are not up to par, Apple should just stop trying in the future? Is that how you guys think?

Sad isn't it?

The funny thing is Maps has been really successful from my point of view. It has gotten me to where I want to go everytime I've used it. On really long drives, that I know well, I use it anyway to avoid construction and other frustrations.

Beyond the fact that Maps has worked out of the box it has gotten significantly better over the years since release. Why people dwell on the past is beyond me.

Here is the reality though, no matter what Apple does people will whine because it doesn't emulate what Google produces down to the last letter. This is truly asinine because emulating Google does nothing for providing real options.