Apple hires Amazon executive to head its Siri search team

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple has hired William Stasior, a former Amazon executive and "prominent search technologist," who will now run its Siri personal assistant division.

Citing sources familiar with the hiring, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD reported on Monday that Stasior will be in charge of Siri, and the hiring could hint that Apple is planning to make a bigger push into the search business. The current market leader, Google, is a fierce rival of Apple's, so much so that Apple opted to ditch Google Maps for its own mapping solution with iOS 6.

Swisher said that Apple "could eventually remove" Google as a search option on iOS devices. Currently, Google is the default search choice on the iPhone and iPad.

Stasior
William Stasior, via stasior.com.


Earlier this month, one report revealed that late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs considered removing Google search from iOS in response to Google's entrance into the smartphone market with its Android operating system. However, Jobs and the company ultimately decided against removing Google, as they felt it would upset users too greatly.

Apple's own in-house search technology team will presumably get a boost from the presence of Stasior, who has been in charge of Amazon's A9 search technology. He was also formerly an executive at the search engine AltaVista.

Apple is also adding to its Siri team after losing some key personnel from the team it acquired when it purchased the voice-driven technology. Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and CEO of Siri, left Apple after the iPhone 4S launch last October, while Adam Cheyer, who also co-founded Siri, left Apple recently, according to Swisher.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    AltaVista?

    Talk about motivation in beating Google at Search;-)
  • Reply 2 of 30
    Dear Kara Swisher: Did you study idle speculation in journalism school? KEEP YOUR COMMENTARY OUT OF IT. You don't know jack about what Apple is or is not doing.

    EDIT: I was referring to this comment:
    [QUOTE]Swisher said that Apple "could eventually remove" Google as a search option on iOS devices. [/QUOTE]
  • Reply 3 of 30
    jason98jason98 Posts: 768member
    Oh no, the Searchgate is coming along with iOS7 :-)
  • Reply 4 of 30


    I'm thinking his relevance might be more associated with how siri searches for answers... and the backend technologies required to make sure when someone something, siri is better equipped in searching, processing, and handling the end result.

  • Reply 5 of 30
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    Siri could definitely use some help.


     


    I hear: "Would you like me to search the web for...whatever it is I asked", way too often.

  • Reply 6 of 30
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member


    Very impressive credentials this guy has. Nice to see Apple adding these kinds of people to its team. 

  • Reply 7 of 30
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    So who does this guy report to? Maybe Scott Forstall will have more time to focus on maps. 8-)
  • Reply 8 of 30


    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post

    Maybe Scott Forstall will have more time to focus on maps.


     


    I'd rather he leave that to the people responsible for Maps.

  • Reply 9 of 30
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Imagine search results without pay-for-placement spam results at the top.
    Imagine just getting the right answer instead of 12,448,618 useless links in 0.028 seconds.

    Sounds good to me.
  • Reply 10 of 30
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    sockrolid wrote: »
    Imagine search results without pay-for-placement spam results at the top.
    Imagine just getting the right answer instead of 12,448,618 useless links in 0.028 seconds.
    Sounds good to me.

    It would nice if it could also check for validity somehow. Too many searches bring up totally false information that many folks assume is correct just because it is on the Internet ... Such as thousands of posts stating you can run a car engine with hydrogen generated from water electrolysis using the same car's battery!
  • Reply 11 of 30


    At most Apple can do is remove Google search from being the default option. That's it. They can't remove Google search as one of the options, it's just going to invite lawsuits that Apple likely can't win.


     


    I still do not use Siri 99% of the time, just not consistent enough for my taste. They've to improve Siri A LOT for me to give up using the apps themselves or Safari.

  • Reply 12 of 30
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    sockrolid wrote: »
    Imagine search results without pay-for-placement spam results at the top.
    Imagine just getting the right answer instead of 12,448,618 useless links in 0.028 seconds.
    Sounds good to me.

    You mustn't know how to do a search, my results are between the first three 99% of the time.
  • Reply 13 of 30


    Originally Posted by ClemyNX View Post

    You mustn't know how to do a search, my results are between the first three 99% of the time.


     


    Turn off ""personal" results" (inner pair of quotation marks mine). The first fifty results then become YouTube videos. Put "-youtube" in the search. Now the top results are dozens of pages from the same website, pushing variety out of the picture.


     


    I even use Bing now. Never gonna use Google to search again, given that nonsense.

  • Reply 14 of 30
    jccjcc Posts: 326member
    This is a disaster. A9 is one of the suckliest search algorithms in the world. Has anyone ever tried searching on Amazon? It's the pits. Why is Tim Cook screwing up so much???
  • Reply 15 of 30
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member


    MOTHER OF GOD.


     


    They hired Lt. Commander Eddington. 

  • Reply 16 of 30
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I'd rather he leave that to the people responsible for Maps.
    Well the maps unit reports up through him so ultimately he's responsible.
  • Reply 17 of 30
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    rogifan wrote: »
    Well the maps unit reports up through him so ultimately he's responsible.

    "Up through him"? What does that mean? Doesn't seem to mean he's ultimately responsible. Like I said, try to get more sleep at night. Maybe nappies during the day.
  • Reply 18 of 30


    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post

    Well the maps unit reports up through him so ultimately he's responsible.


     


    He's responsible in the same way that the President is responsible for US citizens. 


     


    The Maps team is the Maps team because they're best at Maps. Forstall is where he is because he's the best at what he is doing.


     


    I don't expect the President fly to Paris and paint over anti-French graffiti spraypainted by an American citizen, and I don't expect Forstall to go code for the Maps team when he's very probably better served where he is.

  • Reply 19 of 30

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    So who does this guy report to? Maybe Scott Forstall will have more time to focus on maps. image


    Scott's job is to promise the moon and stars and let other's figure out how to match the capabilities to the expectations...

  • Reply 20 of 30

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    It would nice if it could also check for validity somehow. Too many searches bring up totally false information that many folks assume is correct just because it is on the Internet ... Such as thousands of posts stating you can run a car engine with hydrogen generated from water electrolysis using the same car's battery!


    OMG!!! Are you saying I can't?!!!!

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