Billions in Google revenue could ride on Apple renewing iOS search deal

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 76
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    I think Apple should buy Duck Duck Go and make it the default search.

    Do you ever make sense? You probably brush your teeth with the wrong end of the brush.
  • Reply 42 of 76
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    I hate typing on iPhone. I always use voice with Google app. Siri is terrible. 

  • Reply 43 of 76
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gregnacu View Post

     

    I think making Duck Duck Go the default option would not be such a bad move.  I'd love to see Apple and DDG have a closer relationship.  Apple could even invest in DDG to help see them improve their product.  I like such a move more than the idea of Apple trying to become their own search engine.

     

    I think Google had a tactic where they would invest in a company under conditions that if they were going to be bought out by someone Google would be given the first right to acquire them instead.  Apple could do something like that.  Invest in DDG, keep them independent, but retain the first right to acquire them if Google or Microsoft or Facebook tried to acquire them. Win-win-win.




    I set DDG as the default on my iPhone and I have to say I think Google is better, but not sufficiently better to spur me to switch back to them as default. 

     

    I think the value of being default is huge... 

  • Reply 44 of 76
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,285member
    Apple needs to take its time to stick it in as deep as possible.
  • Reply 45 of 76
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JoshA View Post

     

    I switched all my default search to DuckDuckGo a few years ago.

    But some searches still require Google for best results.

    I avoid Yahoo and Bing, they are ugly.


     

    As I noted earlier, people tend not to learn options, but DDG's "!bangs" are a good one. 

     

    And a super simple one to memorize is to add "!g" to a DuckDuckGo search, in which case it delivers the Google results for comparison.

     

    PS: !b and !y also deliver the Bing and Yahoo results respectively. While !w, !A and !yt give you WikiP, Amazon and YouTube search results.  Etc.



    So with DDG you can easily have BoAW: Best of all worlds. Without changing defaults or having to select alt engines.

     

    Quote:

    DuckDuckGo enables you to search directly on 100s of other sites with our, "!bang" commands.

     

    !bangs are shortcuts that start with an exclamation point like, !wikipedia and !espn. Use them to quickly search other sites from the DuckDuckGo search box.

     

    For example, you can type in a command like '!amazon shoes', which will take you to Amazon.com and auto-search it for 'shoes'.

     

    !bangs work for 100s of sites and you can even add or fix broken !bangs by submitting them here


    • Most big sites work, e.g. !youtube (see full list below)

    • Most generic keywords work too, e.g. !images

    • There are also shorter versions, e.g. !g (google) !i (images) !yt (youtube)

    • !ducky or '! ' or '\' will take you to the first result.

    • !safeoff will run a search with safe search off.



      [continues on: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html ]




  • Reply 46 of 76
    applesauce007applesauce007 Posts: 1,698member

    Google is superior to both Bing and Yahoo,  Apple should stick with Google until sit can they develop Spotlight & SIRI into a full fledge search engine.

     

    Apple hired William Stasior since 2012, they should be well on their way with a good search platform now.  Perhaps a Watson based engine with integrated support from WolframAlpha, Yelp, Fandango and the like...

     

    Time will tell.

  • Reply 47 of 76
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bigpics View Post

     
     

    As I noted earlier, people tend not to learn options, but DDG's "!bangs" are a good one. 

     

    And a super simple one to memorize is to add "!g" to a DuckDuckGo search, in which case it delivers the Google results for comparison.

     

    PS: !b and !y also deliver the Bing and Yahoo results respectively. While !w, !A and !yt give you WikiP, Amazon and YouTube search results.  Etc.



    So with DDG you can easily have BoAW: Best of all worlds. Without changing defaults or having to select alt engines.


    Good one! I bet they built that as part of their test bench when creating their search engine. !g

  • Reply 48 of 76
    koopkoop Posts: 337member

    Apple is arguably the most meticulous and uncompromising technology company in existence. I'm assuming hurt feelings aren't going to get in the way of any arrangement that may come about. If Apple drops Google, it's because they feel the iOS experience will be consistent or better without Google.

     

    Personally Bing and Yahoo are awful, lousy search engines with rather poor results. Their interfaces are not up to Apple's standards either. Google has spent lots of money creating iOS and HTML5 versions of their services that work extremely well. In fact, there has been times when Google has given preference to iOS over Android in its services. I have a hard time swallowing Apple believing that Bing would work just as well, but I could be wrong. Regardless i'll be a 'switchbacker' if that happens.

     

    If Apple wants a better search engine than Google, then they need to create it themselves. Microsoft and Yahoo haven't figured it out.

  • Reply 49 of 76
    redhotfuzzredhotfuzz Posts: 313member

    Quote:


     Assuming a 50 percent "switchback" rate


     

    50 percent???  That seems awfully optimistic for Google.  I find it highly unlikely a full half of users would manually switch their search engine back to Google.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by woodbine View Post

     

    Just what's wrong with Google search? I don't get so many ads and I find their search algos work for me. So what if they scrape my data and use that to ad me.


     

    Google appreciates your apathy.

     

    Me, I prefer not to be under constant digital surveillance.

  • Reply 50 of 76
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    I am going to try DDG. In general with bing and yahoo I feel I am missing results. DDG seems good so far though ( 10 minutes testing).
  • Reply 51 of 76
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    evilution wrote: »
    With all of the companies that Apple have bought to increase the search ability in the app store, they must have enough talent to make ?search and make it awesome. Considering the advertising revenue available and Apple's standing as the most known company in the world, they'd make Billions a year doing nothing.

    With most things, Google had something good that worked well and made money, then they stopped bothering with it, same with maps.
    Only competition will make them pull their finger out and make it better.

    Yeah. Well Apple need to get other web services up to scratch before they try the search.
  • Reply 52 of 76
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by asdasd View Post





    Yeah. Well Apple need to get other web services up to scratch before they try the search.

     

    I agree with this. iCloud via their icloud.com portal is not good at all. They are still lacking a web site for their iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive as well.

  • Reply 53 of 76
    woochiferwoochifer Posts: 385member

    Surprised that nobody's drawing more from the Firefox example. Changing the default browser on Firefox instantly decreased Google's search share among Firefox users from over 80% to around 60%. Firefox's browser share is about 14%, yet switching the default search engine immediately dropped Google's overall search share to its lowest point in years. In recent weeks, Google was able to stabilize the defection rate by adding a button to its home page that switches the default browser back for Firefox users.

     

    http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/02/03/google-web-search

    http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/01/07/google-search-share-drops-after-firefox-switch/

     

    And this does not account for mobile searches, where iOS has an outsized influence on the market because of the higher level of usage by those on iOS devices. Switching the iOS default search engine would have a huge monetary impact on Google, even if the "switchback" rate remains as high as it was with Firefox desktop users (more like 75%, rather than the 50% speculated by UBS).

     

    I like how Firefox implemented the new search function when the browser switched the default to Yahoo! The search box defaults to Yahoo!, but if you click the box after entering the search term the first time, it will provide a full panel of alternate search engines, including Duck Duck Go, Google, Bing, Amazon, eBay, and Wikipedia. If the Yahoo! search results aren't sufficient, then just click back in the search box and the other search engine options appear. It's easy and quick, with no need to reenter the search terms.

     

    That might also explain why Google's search share didn't drop even further with Firefox users. If Firefox chose a more punitive approach (i.e., requiring the user to go into the preferences to switch the default search engine, or to access the Google site), then the switchback rate could have been much lower.

     

    If Apple comes to a new default search agreement, this is the kind of implementation I would like to see. Meets the strategic objective of steering iOS user data away from Google, while still providing an easy option for iOS users to use Google or any other search engine if the initial results aren't what the user needs.

  • Reply 54 of 76
    singularitysingularity Posts: 1,328member
    redhotfuzz wrote: »
    <div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/185022/billions-in-google-revenue-could-ride-on-apple-renewing-ios-search-deal#post_2684748" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><div class="quote-container">Quote:<div class="quote-block"><div> <span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">Assuming a 50 percent "switchback" rate</span></div></div></div><p> </p><p>50 percent???  That seems awfully optimistic for Google.  I find it highly unlikely a full half of users would manually switch their search engine back to Google.</p><p> </p><p>Quote:</p><div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>woodbine</strong> <a href="/t/185022/billions-in-google-revenue-could-ride-on-apple-renewing-ios-search-deal#post_2684748"><img alt="View Post" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" /></a><br /> <p>Just what's wrong with Google search? I don't get so many ads and I find their search algos work for me. So what if they scrape my data and use that to ad me.</p></div></div><p> </p><p>Google appreciates your apathy.</p><p> </p><p>Me, I prefer not to be under constant digital surveillance.</p>
    then don't be online.
  • Reply 55 of 76
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by koop View Post

     
     iCloud via their icloud.com portal is not good at all. 


    Who chose that hideous background on iCloud?

  • Reply 56 of 76
    redhotfuzzredhotfuzz Posts: 313member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by singularity View Post



    then don't be online.

     

    There are ways for the non-ignorant to protect themselves from digital intrusion.

     

    (Not using Google is a good first step.)

  • Reply 57 of 76
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    Google are fuckers but are still the best in this business. Apple would be stupid to not renew the deal.

     

    Agree both parties have things to gain and lose on the line - both short and longer term.



    People have also mentioned Spotlight's growing ability to add online results to searches there, but a long way to go if they have serious plans along these lines.  Maybe investing in DDG would give them a leg up?? 



    Off-but-on-topic PS: For starters, I'd be happy if Spotlight would simply find files I'm looking for.  It misses most - even ones I'm LOOKING AT in Finder - so I'm just copying the name or keywords that I'm looking at to test - and it just comes up piles of crap that seem to bear little to no relation to the search terms.

     

    Shockingly bad. 

     

    Note: I just got my first Mac in some years about four months ago.  Am I "holding it wrong"?

  • Reply 58 of 76
    sog35 wrote: »
    mike1 wrote: »
     
    Does anybody really click ads (intentionally) that show up in a search result??? Just sayin'.

    exactly.  I have no idea how Google gets away with charging BILLIONS on search ads when no one clicks on them.

    It may not just the ad clicks Googlew is after but building demographics of certain types of user data that Google can sell to advertisers for every kind of media. Like what do people that shop at Amazon look like demographically? What sites do they go to beside Amazon and what kinds of searches do they do... Google can build a profile of you even if they don't know your name.
  • Reply 59 of 76
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mike1 View Post

     

    Does anybody really click ads (intentionally) that show up in a search result??? Just sayin'.


     

    I do, sometimes, you need to modify your ad profile to get better ads. Ones that are directed towards your interest. It's also important to set the location. Example, I get ads from Digitec.ch, Interdiscount.ch, etc. local computer stores. I like knowing when they have sales on certain items. If you don't want to see ads, just use AdBlock, it works. I have a ad blocker installed in my proxy server. If you don't know how to do it yourself, their is software like MyProxy, that can help you set up your own proxy.

  • Reply 60 of 76
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Apple now has enough of a userbase, marketshare, and brand loyalty with iPhones that they can safely ditch Google as the default and won't be damaged. Those who want to use it can switch it back. But Google will lose at least 80-90% of searches from iOS users who leave the default. If Apple does this with Macs, iPads, and iPhones, Google will be pretty fucked, considering the amount and type of people (ie. higher income and usage) that use these devices.
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