Yahoo and Microsoft Court Apple as Google's Safari Search Engine Deal Expires in 2015

[arkmannj]

Like everything else.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No. Can you image the design on that? 5 results per page so it looks clean. Everything the same light gray font with 2 pixel width. Have the window be transparent so you can see a blur of your desktop. In fact, why have it in the browser? Make it a stand alone app! iSearch..no wait!... Search

see:

I never said it was a fantastic idea, just that it is a market I could see Apple moving into. They have the weight to do it.

We didn't think moving into maps was a great idea at first, but the Apple maps seem pretty good (from my usage) these days. I rarely if ever reach for google maps on my mobile device any longer.

in short, I don't count anything out of Apple's realm of possibilities anymore. The quality of such may be in question, but I wouldn't be surprised or shocked if Apple did launch a search service of their own. Apple likes to control their ecosystem, and search is a big ecosystem piece.

 

[Traverse]

see:

Ah, I too wouldn't be complete taken aback to see them do it, but I think it would end in failure.

 

[racer1441]

Exactly. I've tried Bing, Yahoo and numerous others .. they do not compare with the accuracy I get using Google Search.

Interesting. My experience has been the exact opposite. Bing has been much better for me over the last several months.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

I used bing for one afternoon, and I gave up.

Exactly. You gave it up. You never really gave it a chance.

 

[69Mustang]

DuckDuckGo has 12 employees, and they started on this in 2007, so it's taken 7 years to get to where it is now. I would estimate it would take Apple 2-3 years to replicate it. It'd be much faster to buy them.

Another option is Apple could make them the default provider and front them the money so that they can buy the servers to handle the sudden explosion in demand.

But why would Apple even consider this? Right now, search is a revenue generator; rumored at a billion a year from Google. You're suggesting:
1. Apple forgo 2 billion (or more) per year for the next 5 years just to install DDG as the default provider. 2. Apple fund DDG expansion. 3. Profit??

What's the end game for Apple? Let's never forget Apple is a business. A business that keeps an eye on profitability above all else. Search is a profit generator for all the big players. If Apple acquires DDG, how long before they look at it as a profit generator as well? That profit comes from selling anonymous data. At that point, Apple becomes another Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Unless you think Apple would continue to run DDG as overhead as a courtesy to customers. I seriously think whoever brings the biggest check will win.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

But why would Apple even consider this? Right now, search is a revenue generator; rumored at a billion a year from Google. You're suggesting:
1. Apple forgo 2 billion (or more) per year for the next 5 years just to install DDG as the default provider. 2. Apple fund DDG expansion. 3. Profit??

What's the end game for Apple? Let's never forget Apple is a business. A business that keeps an eye on profitability above all else. Search is a profit generator for all the big players. If Apple acquires DDG, how long before they look at it as a profit generator as well? That profit comes from selling anonymous data. At that point, Apple becomes another Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Unless you think Apple would continue to run DDG as overhead as a courtesy to customers. I seriously think whoever brings the biggest check will win.

DDG makes money from ads. The only difference between their ads and the ads from the other search engines is that they don't track you - their ads are served based on just the search you're making right now and nothing else - they don't track your prior searches or the other websites you visit, so they have nothing to base ads on other than what you're currently searching for.

Apple could replace ads on DDG with iAds to attract more advertisers to the platform.

 

[MacMadsen]

Best search engine ever made, I can't live without it.

 

[rctlr]

I switched to DDG when I went iOS8 and Yosemite.
I've not looked back.

Apples spidering sites at the moment, there is nothing stopping them from making their own search engine.

If apple go down this path themselves, or buys DDG, then they do not need the money from searches. This I think will be good for both them, and especially the users who prefer confidentiality.

 

[goobot]

Not really. See what I wrote above about the study showing brand bias towards Google, even when the results were actually from Bing.

I've used bing for 5 months straight due to the rewards program, many times porn would show up when I was trying to look somthing up for a class. If it wasn't porn it would be useless pdf files. Bing tries to make the results look pretty for the average idiot yes, but the results are garbage none the less.

 

[Sol]

Personally I prefer google search to anything else. Not having it as the default in iOS devices will be seen as a negative by the average iPhone user and alternative phones will seem better because of it.

 

[JHankwitz]

Exactly. I've tried Bing, Yahoo and numerous others .. they do not compare with the accuracy I get using Google Search.

Especially since they're the most accurate collectors of your personal on-line activity information.

 

[Keirasplace]

Best search engine ever made, I can't live without it.

Well, just switch the default then... Good grief.

 

[the-msa]

imo

That doesn't have anything to do with your opinion. It's a fact.

 

[iMaven]

Apple will use DuckDuckGo

 

[kepler20b]

Exactly. You gave it up. You never really gave it a chance.

bing is awful

i dont need to see tweets take up 1/3 of the search page

i dont need to see erroneous links related to retail items about my search that take up 40% of the page.


bing is god awful.

it indexes about 20% of what google can and doesnt provide you with anything even close to accuracy and precision.


get off the high horse. google is king, and bing and yahoo arent even peasants.

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Apple will use DuckDuckGo

DDG plain sucks


No news integration

all the top indexes of you search are all erroneous links. Facebook, twitter, wikipedia, mtv. etc.

this isnt even search. it makes you go through 20 more clicks to find an actual article that you were searching. whereas google is always the top 5 indexes and bing, when you sort through the clutter and advertisements, somewhere on the first page.

 

[cjmillsnun]

I do not understand why Apple is cozying up with Microsoft these days given how terse relations were in the 1990s.... when Windows PCs with a clearly knockoff interface were eating Apple's market share alive and throwing Apple out of business at the time. Microsoft was making more money just licensing Windows than Apple was with their whole operation.

I am guessing this Bing deal is still a part of the deal that Apple made with Microsoft when they bailed them out in 1997 and Microsoft invested a sizable amount in Apple to have Apple bundle Internet Explorer with every shipping Mac. Looks like this "deal" is still going...

Personally, I grew up in the 1990s during all this, and have been very anti-Microsoft my whole life. I was even very anti-Intel as well, but use the current day Macs anyways once I found they were faster than the PPCs at running OS X.

I would rather see Apple engineer its own search service which blows everything away or which leverages multiple engines. Apple has the money, the resources, the infrastructure and everything else to develop such a system to dominate the future search market.

Microsoft did not bail out Apple in 1997. Apple had more cash in the bank than MS invested. It was a patent settlement, nothing more.

The IE deal folded when Apple introduced Safari. Had there still been a deal with MS, then Google would never have been the default search provider.

MS are far less hostile towards Apple now than they ever have been, also Google is doing to Apple in the mobile space what MS did to Apple in the desktop space in the 90s.

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Apple is now in a position to screw Google. They're the competition and the bulk of their business is based on accumulating user data through search. Once they lose the considerable iOS + Mac user base, they're going to be in trouble. I'm sure they'll survive but they will lose an edge.

Ummm no they're not.

What is the world's most popular web browser right now????

Chrome.

What is the most widely used smart mobile OS right now????

Android.

 

[Tech198]

Just as long as there is still a Google option, i don't care.

After all, i'm not even updating anymore, so to u all

 

[Bill Killer]

Is anyone still using Google for search?

It's time for Apple to drop them.

Not sure if serious, or delusional.

 

[D-Dave]

Or you know, maybe 2015 will be the year Apple releases it's own search engine...

Shhhhh...don't you dare say that...someone over in cupertino may catch on to that idea and will provide us with another great service like health and maps...most likely not removeable...no thanks.

 

[ron7624]

That doesn't have anything to do with your opinion. It's a fact.

I had no proof of my generalization it was simply a comment, a thought.
Not sure why you're picking on that comment....

 

[cr2]

I have introduced some non technical senior citizens to Macrumors and now they check macrumors very religiously. The idea was to keep up with the tech news which would matter to them.

A few months ago, one person (75+) became too passionate after seeing the Apple watch prototype pictures on macrumores. Today someone called me asking if he won't be able to use Google on his iPad or Macbook air. I could have explained him but gave him the best answer, "Don't worry, I will fix it and make sure that Google still works for you".

I support a large group of friends & family and whoever has migrated to iPad / Macs and iPhone are very happy.

 

[mentaluproar]

I recently switched to bing after google gave me several irrelevant search results. Bing got them all immediately. It is my new friend.

 

[SockRolid]

Well....evil or not the search engine rocks.

Yes, but it's encumbered by pay-for-placement spam.
And their search results favor other Google-controlled sites.
And, as we all know, Google tracks the ***** out of you.

And seriously, how many of your searches show the Wikipedia entry at or near the top?
Might as well just go straight to Wikipedia no?