With the recent launch of iOS14 and iPadOS14, users have noticed that the queries show search results without Google Search. This is an indication that Apple is trying to build its search engine and has no further plan to use Google Search as the default search engine. Since the user queries can be answered without the support of Google, it can be said that Apple is making a pretty fast and impressive development on the way to its own search engine. This Cupertino Company with efficient search capabilities in iOS14 and iPadOS14 has proved that it will be soon ready to challenge Google’s search engine and replace it for once and all.
If we go a little backward in time we can connect the dots as Apple earlier this year posted job openings for search engineers. So, Tim Cook was determined for a long time to create the company’s default search engine followed by incorporating it in the latest version of iOS, that is, iOS14. Now, when users type a query on the home screen it displays a direct link to the websites without opening in Google Search.
Why is Apple creating a new search engine?
Recently, the relationship between Apple and Google has gone sore thus bringing the two under antitrust scrutiny. The US antitrust authorities have threatened the payment made to Apple by Google for securing the position of default search engine on iPhones and iPads. The web search capability of Apple’s smartphones always plays a major role in deciding the overall in-house development of the company. So, if they can successfully make an alternative search engine, it will increase the value of the company and make it independent of Google Search. According to some industry experts, Apple is creating its search engine mainly to attack Google. The former has not made any major official announcement regarding the search engine but where there is smoke there is fire.
Strategies and plot twists
In 2018, Apple hired John Giannandrea, Google’s head of search to improve the existing AI capabilities of the company and to boost the performance of Siri, the virtual assistant. John came with eight years of experience in working with the Google search engine. John’s hiring along with the recent opening for search engineers will create a very strong team for the development of an alternative search engine. So, if the relationship between Google and Apple comes to an end in terms of the Google search engine, Apple will not face any adverse situation.
After the case launched by the US Department of Justice last week, Bill Coughran, Google’s former engineering chief, said that Apple already has a credible team if they want to go for developing a more general search engine. Many search marketing experts also noticed that the activity of Applebot has increased ridiculously in recent weeks. Applebot is iPhone’s web crawler and the increased rate of crawling means that it is trying to gather more information from the internet. In the new iOS14, Apple’s home screen shows a list of search suggestions generated by Apple’s search engine and not Google. The search result is based on AI thus showing results according to the common queries.
Will apple become a strong competition?
Standing up to Google as a strong rival could take years, but currently, Apple has shown excellent developments with the alternative search engine. Apple has both a good team of engineers and capital to sign up for a long-term investment. Since the beginning, Apple has focused more on developing every bit of its product in-house starting from the smartphones to the watches. It wants to create a very strong integration between the hardware and the software components. But, for a long time, Apple was stuck with Google’s search engine. Though Apple still has the option to choose between keeping Google Search as the default search engine or become its rival, the stakes are high for the latter option.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s former head of advertising, said that to build a search engine it should have 20bn-50bn pages in its active index. Along with this, the system has to rank the pages within milliseconds when the user runs a query. It will be extremely difficult for Apple to create a search engine as big as Google but it is not impossible.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more