It is curious the FT is so suddenly hearing chatter from unnamed industry sources that Apple is picking up the pace with developing its own search engine to replace Google Search so soon after the USDOJ sued Google for antitrust with search being the focus of the charges. With this chatter, Google can point to Apple making the search arena more competitive just as Apple made the maps arena more competitive with Apple Maps. Very curious.
I’m sure Apple stockholders won’t be happy; that’s a big slice of revenue gone and given Apple’s privacy stance they won’t monetize the data to make up for it.
For those saying this would put Apple in the crosshairs for monopoly rulings, I disagree. Apple customers willingly pay a premium for the quality of service - hw and sw - and security. There are options.
The majority do not buy for privacy. Most don’t care about that at all.
If Apple Search is anything like Apple Maps or Siri, NO THANKS! If someone can give me an alternative to Google Search that is AS GOOD, then I might switch, but I know, in fact, there isn't one. Someone above said DuckDuckGo isn't as good, and ever try Bing? It's a joke.
Be careful what you wish for.
2012 called and they want their meme back. Seriously, this comment is complete nonsense. Apple Maps has evolved into an excellent service. It shouldn't be surprising that a major effort like that takes years of hard work though. Now, we have a great mapping service on Apple devices that actually respects our privacy. Can't say the same for Google Maps.
I could see many benefits to this for both Apple and device owners. Apple would have a lot more context information than Google does (e.g. what apps you were recently using, usage patterns, etc). Plus deeper integration with Siri and other places where search is used under-the-hood.
I don't know if Apple is going to do their own search engine, but there would be obvious benefits. - Privacy. Being tied to Google search still represents a privacy risk. Sure, Apple has limited some of that with Safari, etc. but not completely. - Siri. Siri needs a massive amount of source information to draw from in order to provide relevant results. Having your own search engine has indeed provided Google with a competitive advantage. - AI. Apple wants to be the best at AI and Machine Learning. In some respects, Apple is leading the way. Having your own search engine would benefit this effort as well.
There doesn't appear to be an equivalent impetus for Apple to replace Google search, though it is possible that the DOJ suit may affect the situation.
That DOJ suit is no small thing. I'd list it as the number one reason for Apple to do this. Apple makes a LOT of money from using Google as the default search engine in iOS. If the DOJ kills that deal, Apple loses billions and suddenly has a strong incentive to try and get some of those billions back through their own search.
Without the DOJ suit, the only other reason for Apple to do this is to keep Google paying the billions. Money for nothin'.
I’m pretty sure Apple shareholders won’t give a sh*t.
I agree. And more importantly - the day Apple worries more about shareholders than product developer and user experience is the day the Apple brand begins to evaporate.
This is a TERRIBLE IDEA. I was against Apple TV+ because I don’t think Apple should be creating content.. this is much much scarier to me. As much as I love Apple my politics don’t line up with them and Big Tech Censorship of Conservative Voices is a HUGE PROBLEM. I don’t think Apple would play it any different from Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg. We will see more one-sided censorship. How ironic that 1984 was the inspiration for the Apple’s ad decades ago.. people are now getting de-platformed for “wrong think”. Our own President is censored on Twitter! Does Apple really wanna be doing this? I do not like this.
The majority do not buy for privacy. Most don’t care about that at all.
Speak for yourself. Regardless, privacy is one of Apple's core values and it is a competitive advantage that Apple does advertise and capitalize on.
If majority of the people "really" cared about privacy, how do you explain Facebook being one of the Top downloaded applications in the App Store?
Fair question. History has demonstrated that privacy is a sliding scale or a relative measure. There have been multiple examples of data being stolen from the Android version of the FaceBook app but not on the iOS version due to security reasons. Likewise, perhaps using Facebook is more important than privacy for some people overall, but that doesn't mean that iOS users don't expect higher standards in terms of what the Facebook app is allowed to do on their phones.
This is a TERRIBLE IDEA. I was against Apple TV+ because I don’t think Apple should be creating content.. this is much much scarier to me. As much as I love Apple my politics don’t line up with them and Big Tech Censorship of Conservative Voices is a HUGE PROBLEM. I don’t think Apple would play it any different from Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg. We will see more one-sided censorship. How ironic that 1984 was the inspiration for the Apple’s ad decades ago.. people are now getting de-platformed for “wrong think”. Our own President is censored on Twitter! Does Apple really wanna be doing this? I do not like this.
For starters, it seems odd that anyone would object to Apple creating TV content, but I guess that's an issue for another thread. As for censorship, who knows what Apple will do? Is having another choice really such a bad thing? Even if they did censor searches, are you any worse off than you are now?
“ There doesn't appear to be an equivalent impetus for Apple to replace Google search, though it is possible that the DOJ suit may affect the situation.”
The impetus is Steve Jobs saying he was going to go thermonuclear on Google for betraying their close relationship by developing Android. It might not be mentioned often anymore, but don’t believe for a second that Apple has forgotten that. If they could pull it off, it would be a beautiful long game. As far as the loss of revenue that would result, it isn’t hard to imagine Apple monetizing search by tying it into icloud or Apple One. Many people would gladly pay a small fee for an ad-free, privacy focused search engine. Assuming it would be at least as good as Google’s, of course.
I’m sure Apple stockholders won’t be happy; that’s a big slice of revenue gone and given Apple’s privacy stance they won’t monetize the data to make up for it.
For those saying this would put Apple in the crosshairs for monopoly rulings, I disagree. Apple customers willingly pay a premium for the quality of service - hw and sw - and security. There are options.
The majority do not buy for privacy. Most don’t care about that at all.
Then you have the iKnockoff morons who say privacy is bad.
I use Duck Duck Go on my iPhone because Google AMP is an abomination — which totally sucks, because while the stuff I want from my Mac are mostly pretty good on DDG (technical stuff, research), the stuff I want on my phone (local businesses and news, shopping, recreational reading) is dogcrap.
Monopoly and consolidation suck but if Google is going to blow it and DDG isn't up to the task, then fine, one more Apple service to rely on, sign me up.
I’m sure Apple stockholders won’t be happy; that’s a big slice of revenue gone and given Apple’s privacy stance they won’t monetize the data to make up for it.
For those saying this would put Apple in the crosshairs for monopoly rulings, I disagree. Apple customers willingly pay a premium for the quality of service - hw and sw - and security. There are options.
There’s ways to monetize search without selling user data. Apple can, on device, keep a history of a user’s search history and other usage, using that both to suggest alternate search terms or expanded search terms or filter a user’s search behind the scenes to yield better results. So on the user’s side data privacy - user profile, past search and browsing activity - is maintained. So no money to be made from monetizing user data.
But on the vendor side, there’s still the ranking engine. After results are returned they need to be ranked. This is accomplished via a combination of the search relevancy and the bidding engine used to sell position in search rankings. There’s loads of money in that. Plus there’s direct advertising revenue, only the advertising placement would be based entirely on search term relevancy. It wouldn’t be as targeted as Google’s, and so it would necessarily be priced less per impression, but less revenue than what Google pulls can still be a lot of revenue.
Apple’s goal would be twofold; to provide an excellent privacy-protected search for users, and to recoup the $billions in profits lost to dropping the relationship with Google. That’s a fraction of the profits Google itself makes, so it wouldn’t have to generate anywhere near the revenue Google does. Just enough to push Google out while replacing the revenue and profit Apple currently pulls from the deal they have now with Google as the default.
The majority do not buy for privacy. Most don’t care about that at all.
Speak for yourself. Regardless, privacy is one of Apple's core values and it is a competitive advantage that Apple does advertise and capitalize on.
If majority of the people "really" cared about privacy, how do you explain Facebook being one of the Top downloaded applications in the App Store?
Fair question. History has demonstrated that privacy is a sliding scale or a relative measure. There have been multiple examples of data being stolen from the Android version of the FaceBook app but not on the iOS version due to security reasons.
... Facebook Research. Oh, and Zoom being a bit too share-y with user data sent on to Facebook. Yes it happened even for iOS users.
I’m sure Apple stockholders won’t be happy; that’s a big slice of revenue gone and given Apple’s privacy stance they won’t monetize the data to make up for it.
For those saying this would put Apple in the crosshairs for monopoly rulings, I disagree. Apple customers willingly pay a premium for the quality of service - hw and sw - and security. There are options.
Apple has become a monopoly due to it's expansive halo of product and services. The App is a monopoly which dictates rates and it is the only way for a developer to sell an app for the worlds best phone.
Luckily, ‘best’ is nowhere present in the legal definition of monopoly.
This is a TERRIBLE IDEA. I was against Apple TV+ because I don’t think Apple should be creating content.. this is much much scarier to me. As much as I love Apple my politics don’t line up with them and Big Tech Censorship of Conservative Voices is a HUGE PROBLEM. I don’t think Apple would play it any different from Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg. We will see more one-sided censorship. How ironic that 1984 was the inspiration for the Apple’s ad decades ago.. people are now getting de-platformed for “wrong think”. Our own President is censored on Twitter! Does Apple really wanna be doing this? I do not like this.
History will show that what’s being censored is mistruths, misdirection and misinformation. It just happens there’s one major source of that above all others these past few years.
Comments
I don't know if Apple is going to do their own search engine, but there would be obvious benefits.
- Privacy. Being tied to Google search still represents a privacy risk. Sure, Apple has limited some of that with Safari, etc. but not completely.
- Siri. Siri needs a massive amount of source information to draw from in order to provide relevant results. Having your own search engine has indeed provided Google with a competitive advantage.
- AI. Apple wants to be the best at AI and Machine Learning. In some respects, Apple is leading the way. Having your own search engine would benefit this effort as well.
If majority of the people "really" cared about privacy, how do you explain Facebook being one of the Top downloaded applications in the App Store?
Without the DOJ suit, the only other reason for Apple to do this is to keep Google paying the billions. Money for nothin'.
For starters, it seems odd that anyone would object to Apple creating TV content, but I guess that's an issue for another thread. As for censorship, who knows what Apple will do? Is having another choice really such a bad thing? Even if they did censor searches, are you any worse off than you are now?
Then you have the iKnockoff morons who say privacy is bad.
Monopoly and consolidation suck but if Google is going to blow it and DDG isn't up to the task, then fine, one more Apple service to rely on, sign me up.