Apple's HUGE iDatacenter

None of us really knows what Apple is planning, but my wild guess is this........... Apple actually IS getting into search and will hit Google head on. Think about that for a moment.

I did. Then I laughed. Wouldn't Apple want to call their search Spotlight? That website is currently for talent search.

The data center's for better streaming through iTunes. Think about the Lala acquisition, among others recently.

A logo that looks like "" and slower servers... "about 1,420,00 results found in 2.36 minutes"

(have you ever thought accessing iDisk was too fast?)

They will make something to rival Youtube but because it's all 'amateur hour' content, they will block the uploads until they can professionally reshoot all the videos.

It will probably be a mix of iDisk use, video-on-demand services and general iTunes content.

Better looking, more talented dogs on higher end skateboards. It's a feature planned for iMovie '12.

I was thinking for a while that's it's only time until Apple does actually get into search. I would say it's a while away though.

The data center is probably for mobile me.

Perhaps the dual free/paid MobileMe rumor we've been hearing?

Oh, something else. If you buy a MobileMe year thing, it's a year from activation and can be activated at any time, right? Doesn't expire or anything, yeah?

I think I just figured out what this is for.

What it's not.
It's not for Mobile Me backups. That technology is sort of available. And the uplink speeds means that it's not really a valid option for heavy usage.

I am not convinced it is for media streaming. Apple already stream video and TV and audio without this data centre.

What it *is*.
It is Siri.

It is a way of completely destroying Google's business model. By making search go away.

Apple started the Data Center in 2009 - and bought Siri outright in 2010.

If you read the summaries, Siri is often presented as a technology which takes advantages of search engines. But what it really is - is a way of hiding search engines - making them a back room service for something far more useful.

No one wants to take a crappy journey on a commercial airliner. What people want to do is arrive at their destination.
Similarly no one wants to use a search engine. What people want is answers.

The Siri technology has the potential to completely revolutionise how people get those answers. Using Siri, the user makes a query and Siri intelligently assembles data from multiple sources. The answer is customised for the user. In the user's location. In the users current context.

It makes search look last-century.

This is a perfect technology for making mobile devices even more useful and valuable. Which is why Apple bought the company. But there is one problem;

If Siri client worked with Google's search engine, it would ignore the advertising and the paid results. Google would first hate it, then block it. The only way that Siri could be really great was if Apple provided a back-end search and data engine, purpose built for working with Siri Clients.

If Apple gets this right, it has the potential to eviscerate Google. To make the only Google service that really makes money into something that is suddenly as clunky and last-century as Alta Vista.

C.