Report: Apple 'Stepping Up Efforts' to Develop Alternative to Google Search

lostom said:
I'm interested in members here opinion's on why it would be better for Apple to do this?

Google search is based on ad revenue, Apple is "supposedly privacy based", so therefore, why would Apple give up the revenue that Google pays them.

Seems like killing the golden goose.

I'm not smart enough to understand the complications, so I'm interested in others' thoughts.
Click to expand...

There is an antitrust process going on for exactly this agreement. If they rule against it, then Apple would have to have some alternative ready. At least it would justify the recent price hikes.
 
I use duck duck go by default, if it doesn’t seem to be giving me what I need I open this window to a site called google.org.au. it wrecks google’s monetisation of me, even if it is just a wee bit.
 
bklement said:
Oh, so that's why it started to show in suggestions wikipedia pages in english (as before), but when clicking navigating to (sometimes inexistent) pages in my native language.

On a side note, I hate when websites want to guess my language by location, not by os/browser settings. This leads to getting pages in "gibberish" when using company proxy. If I am lucky I can recognize where I can switch language...
Click to expand...
Especially ridiculous if you live in a country which has two official languages and, while there are geographical clues which might make one language slightly more likely than the other, it is impossible to map location to language used.

And there is at least one internal UK ferry route which switches through Sweden (or is it Norway?) for its on-board wifi.
 
Actually, Apple developing their own search is even more beneficial for them. If Google is paying 8 billion. How much is Google making? Imagine apple having their own search and selling their own advertisements....
 
gigapocket1 said:
Actually, Apple developing their own search is even more beneficial for them. If Google is paying 8 billion. How much is Google making? Imagine apple having their own search and selling their own advertisements....
Click to expand...
For them to make the same amount they either need to start massively harnessing data, which for me would invalidate the higher price, or convince the ad industry that targeted ads working better is actually a scam. How many times were you flooded with ads about a product you've already purchased or irrelevant products after a misunderstood search? I am a software developer, yet I am flooded with coding school ads, and job adverts in completely irrelevant fields. Even google's algorithms are too dumb.
 
very interesting and exciting. i wouldn't mind seeing someone challenge Google search. i've tried Duckduckgo + Bing and they are decent but nowhere near Google. if anyone can topple Google it'll be Apple.

surprised they haven't done this sooner tbh. they probably hate having to give away $8b to google all the time. make your own search engine. throw $8 billion at it and if it works then won't need to give google it.
 
I can just imagine Apple doing this (developing its own search engine) to be proactive, and then having congress come back and hit them with another anti-trust charge because they're forcing people to use their own search engine. Sometimes, you just can't win.
 
As for what it could be called... i think Apple would want to keep it simple but they need something to catch on to replace "Google it".


Apple it?
Spotlight it?
iSearch it?
Siri it (stylised as "Sirit") ?
 
polyphenol said:
Chapman

After Johnny Appleseed.

Gwell Na Mil

A Welsh apple variety also known as "Better than a thousand" or "Seek No Further". :)
Click to expand...

Introducing, the all new iSearch
iSearch is amazing. This is the smartest search engine ever made.
As you type it recognise your gestures and predicts what your intent is, giving you a faster and more intuitive search
It works the way you would have expected search engines should have always worked.
"We wanted to build searching without compromise so we've redesigned searching from the ground up.
Everything we've learned designing Siri and our operating systems, culminates in iSearch."
etc....
 
krspkbl said:
very interesting and exciting. i wouldn't mind seeing someone challenge Google search. i've tried Duckduckgo + Bing and they are decent but nowhere near Google. if anyone can topple Google it'll be Apple.

surprised they haven't done this sooner tbh. they probably hate having to give away $8b to google all the time. make your own search engine. throw $8 billion at it and if it works then won't need to give google it.
Click to expand...
Google pays Apple the $8billion to be the default search engine on iOS
 
Whilst Google does have amazing facilities, it drives me made when it decides to stuff the results with videos (YouTube, of course) and news. Nowadays often ending up with me going through pages to get to the "proper" results that I actually want.
 
krspkbl said:
very interesting and exciting. i wouldn't mind seeing someone challenge Google search. i've tried Duckduckgo + Bing and they are decent but nowhere near Google. if anyone can topple Google it'll be Apple.

surprised they haven't done this sooner tbh. they probably hate having to give away $8b to google all the time. make your own search engine. throw $8 billion at it and if it works then won't need to give google it.
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood this. Google is PAYING $8b to be on iPhones....
 
So Apple will spend a huge amount of money creating their own search engine, that they won’t make nearly as much $ on because of their privacy stance, and then lose that $8-12 billion from Google, only to have the majority of their users still set Google as the default search engine because it simply is better? Shareholders will love this.
 
johannnn said:
I've tried DuckDuckGo and Bing. For complex searches, Google is MILES ahead.So annoying that we can't just have the best as default.
Click to expand...


I use DDG, it's pretty good for most of my use cases. You need to be a bit more crafty with your search terms than with Google, especially if you need a location-based search result, but I don't often find searching with !g gets me better results.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
iDron said:
While competition is good, I think a lot of people stick with Google Maps, Google Search, Translate etc. just because they are better, have more data...
Click to expand...
By everyone walking away from search it perpetuates Google dominance. By ceding this market and leaving to just one company it is fundamentally dangerous.
I am nor saying Apple or anyone has a shot at doing it better or it being sustainable, but it would be grat for consumers of Apple at least tried. MS and Google are really about the only ones with the ecosystems and funding that can make a dent on it.
 
jayducharme said:
I can just imagine Apple doing this (developing its own search engine) to be proactive, and then having congress come back and hit them with another anti-trust charge because they're forcing people to use their own search engine. Sometimes, you just can't win.
Click to expand...
I mean, they can make their own search engine without forcing it on people. If it's an option people can choose, rather than one that's forced on them, there wouldn't be any potential antitrust issues. Of course, that way most people wouldn't pick it for a long time, so they'd have to actually make it a really strong competitor to win marketshare.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top