With the Google Antitrust Ruling, Will Apple Build a Search Engine?

[johnnytravels]

I don’t agree with the article’s conclusion. Knowing all that we do about Cook, losing those billons will make Apple make a deal with another search engine as soon as the dust has settled.
Those negative testimonials of other engines are really just Apple trying to make the court believe that money wasn’t the first thing and that they probably would have used Google anyway… Bing as default engine in less than three years, mark my words (or perhaps DuckDuckGo if they are trying to put a privacy spin on that as well, assuming that DDG is able to outbid Bing).

 

[rwrife]

Traditional search is dying, quit searching for answers and content and get what you're looking for using LLMs. SearchGPT (or something similar) is the future.

 

[nt5672]

Apple cannot even get spellchecking and suggestion working right. It can't get Siri working right.

There is no way Apple has the skills or the vision to do a high quality search engine.

If they do make a search engine, it will just be a mediocre subscription based nightmare.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

If I ask a chatbot “What’s the height of X” and I get a straightforward answer, I would expect 100% accuracy. As a company, I would never launch a chatbot that cannot meet that criteria - even if it’s absurdly ambitious, it’s my responsibility.

That’s why I say today’s flawed Siri with “I found this on the web” is a better experience than “Why yes, you should eat at least 2 medium sized rocks per day.”

 

[StellarVixen]

Traditional search is dying, quit searching for answers and content and get what you're looking for using LLMs. SearchGPT (or something similar) is the future.

After using Perplexity for couple of months now, I do not agree with this statement.

 

[Rogifan]

I think every AI company is missing the forest for the trees here.

People yearn for a search engine like how Google was back in the early 2000s. But this is impossible today because SEO ruined it. Now we have all these AI companies delivering quick answers to questions, but this is not search.

OpenAI or anyone else should leverage AI to show search results in a list like they used to be. Specifically, use the AI to select the top 10, 20, 100, or whatever web sites with the information you are seeking, display them in a list, with a little blurb quoting and excerpting relevant info from each link. This way, it could filter out the SEO garbage, direct the user to the info they are seeking, but still provide a semblance of control and choice by showing it in a list format instead of just a robo-answer to a question.

I wonder what the deal is between Google and Reddit so Reddit posts are the first results a user sees (after Google’s AI crap).

 

[Bodhitree]

If Apple does enter the search market, will they be able to create a search engine that is good enough? Their record with making Siri better does not suggest there is a lot of AI talent in the engineering division.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Traditional search is dying, quit searching for answers and content and get what you're looking for using LLMs. SearchGPT (or something similar) is the future.

You mean LLM’s that build their models from the same data you’re imploring folks to NOT use?

 

[jayducharme]

Why bother. As an example DuckDuckGo has about as many matches as google most of the time. Please no Bing.

It's mostly a two-horse race at this point. Most of the "alternative" search engines (such as Duck Duck Go and Yahoo) utilize Bing for their searches. If Apple built their own from the ground up, that would make for a third horse in the race. But I suspect Apple is going to try to leverage AI to replace traditional Internet searches.

 

[jdclifford]

You answered your own question; it would not be.

I also always select DDG as default search engine. Apple can just allow user to select search engine on first use; no need for a preselected default. (Assuming Google is forced to stop paying Apple for it).

BTW why hasn’t anyone sued Apple for making Safari default browser on all new installations? (i.e. MS Explorer vs Netscape)?

 

[scottrichardson]

I find this whole concept bizarre. Sorry Google, you aren't allowed to have the best search engine on the market. Apple, you have to build your own one, even though you're not a search engine company. If someone else builds a better engine than Google, I'm sure Apple would choose that. Sorry for the naive take on this but the whole 'telling companies what they can and can't do' like this is so strange. It's almost like there's no point becoming huge and successful because as soon as you do, you get attacked and called out for being controlling or monopolising. Dare a company make a product that most people prefer, simply because it's the best! Anyway....

 

[jarman92]

I'd switch to an Apple search engine so fast it'd make your head spin.

I want to agree with this but then I think about the absolute train wreck that is App Store search and am happy to stick with Google 😅

 

[Harry Haller]

I wonder what the deal is between Google and Reddit so Reddit posts are the first results a user sees (after Google’s AI crap).

That's a very good question.

 

[npmacuser5]

AI is the only real search engine ChatGPT. All the rest are nothing more than the old yellow pages electronically updated. AI gives an answer not a list of references. Going forward, todays electronic yellow pages will be a thing of the past. Good riddance. I do more searches today on ChatGPT when I actually would like an answer. Image what the future will be.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Apple making a search engine, the EU is going to love that.

Sure, why not?

Competition is welcome - particularly when it challenges the incumbent dominant gatekeeper.
That's exactly what the European Digital Markets Act is designed to do: To make markets contestable.4

Timmy just shouldn't get too excited in his pipe dreams of shutting out or taxing the competition as he loves to.
As long as people can set up other search engines as default and Apple don't try to demand (30%) access tax on competing search services' ad revenue or something, what issue should the EU have with it? 🤷‍♀️

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I also always select DDG as default search engine. Apple can just allow user to select search engine on first use; no need for a preselected default. (Assuming Google is forced to stop paying Apple for it).

BTW why hasn’t anyone sued Apple for making Safari default browser on all new installations? (i.e. MS Explorer vs Netscape)?

Oh, they absolutely would if they were forcing Dell, Lenovo, Asus, Samsung, lots of other companies that AREN’T Apple to do so. Making those companies use a browser they might not prefer to have on their systems would be wrong.

Fortunately for Apple, Apple hasn’t taken steps to force anyone NOT using an Apple device to use Safari.

 

[mazz0]

If there was no possible alternative, then why were Google paying them?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

AI is the only real search engine ChatGPT. All the rest are nothing more than the old yellow pages electronically updated. AI gives an answer not a list of references. Going forward, todays electronic yellow pages will be a thing of the past. Good riddance. I do more searches today on ChatGPT when I actually would like an answer. Image what the future will be.

Are they really search engines though? Put ChatGPT on a network then forbid it access to search engines… what do you get? Results based on search engine trawling it had done previously.

 

[The_Gream]

I find it much more entertaining that Microsoft has tried multiple times to get Apple to use Bing!

Pretty sure this just shows that even Microsoft knows Bing! Sucks.

Edit: I realize I was not as clear as I liked with the word use. Probably should have been use/buy/we will give you all the ad money if you take this junk off our hands.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Sure, why not?

Competition is welcome - particularly when it challenges the incumbent dominant gatekeeper.
That's exactly what the European Digital Markets Act is designed to do: To make markets contestable.4

Timmy just shouldn't get too excited in his pipe dreams of shutting out or taxing the competition as he loves to.
As long as people can set up other search engines as default and Apple don't (30%) access tax on competing search services, what issue should the EU have with it?

According to Vestager, DMA is meant to punish American companies, as that’s how she says she’ll determine if it has been successful. We’ll see what happens next year after she’s gone.

 

[Account25476]

Apple cannot even get spellchecking and suggestion working right. It can't get Siri working right.

There is no way Apple has the skills or the vision to do a high quality search engine.

If they do make a search engine, it will just be a mediocre subscription based nightmare.

Finally somebody who said this... But let people dreeeam about that...

 

[goobot]

If there was no possible alternative, then why were Google paying them?

Apple would push bing on you for the money, I believe for a few years siri used bing, who knows why they switch back to google

Apple probably figures why not take billions to put the best engine on there while google believes that the money is worth it to keep anyone else out, especially on pretty much the only platform they don’t control since the only real alternative to Android is iOS

 

[Abazigal]

The payout is absolutely meant to stifle competition.

If that was the case, then users wouldn’t even be allowed to switch search engines in safari.

 

[npmacuser5]

Are they really search engines though? Put ChatGPT on a network then forbid it access to search engines… what do you get? Results based on search engine trawling it had done previously.

That is because of the learning function and local restrictions at this development level. As each generation develops snd the hardware necessary to fully support AI, awesome. To your point, no AI is not just a search engine. Much more intelligent. Some say scary intelligent. Might tend to agree with them.

 

[nt5672]

AI is the only real search engine ChatGPT. All the rest are nothing more than the old yellow pages electronically updated. AI gives an answer not a list of references. Going forward, todays electronic yellow pages will be a thing of the past. Good riddance. I do more searches today on ChatGPT when I actually would like an answer. Image what the future will be.

I'm glad that works for you.

Me, I am more interested in truth, than simple minded half truths, bad code, and propaganda. But again that's just me.