Apple forced into developing an alternative to Google Search

Apple is known for trying to own and control the most central components of its products, from the custom chips that power everything from the iPhone to its AirPods and Watch accessories, to the tight integration between its software and hardware. However, Apple does not have their own search engine. In fact, Apple has been using Google as it’s default search engine for more than a decade.

According to Financial Times, Apple is apparently working on an alternative to Google Search. This report comes after the search giant was sued by the US Justice System for paying multiple companies millions of dollars to run Google Search as their default engine. Currently, Apple is getting a massive, $8–12 billion (roughly Rs. 59,227–88,841 crores) fee per year from Google for keeping its search engine as default on iOS devices (Apple May Bring an Alternative to Google Search Soon, n.d.).

Apple it seems has already started working on their search engine and ran a prototype of sorts. Now when iPhone users with iOS 14, the latest iPhone software, type a query into the search window, Apple now shows its own search results instead of Google’s. It also displays auto-complete style suggestions, highlighting how it is learning from users most common search queries. However, few are likely to have noticed the change (Shead, 2020).

About two years ago, Apple poached Google’s head of search, John Giannandrea. The hire was supposedly to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities and its Siri virtual assistant, but also brought eight years of experience running the world’s most popular search engine (Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, n.d.). This comes along with Apple putting up adverts for search engineers.

Another tip off that Apple is moving towards their own search engine is Apple Bots frequent appearance. According to Suganthan Mohanadasan, Applebot has shown up “a ridiculous number of times’ ‘ on his clients’ websites in recent weeks. “When the crawl rate increases, that tells us they are trying to gather more information.” This is a significant tip off since Applebot collects large amounts of data of online material which is the foundation of search engines.

It is easier to develop search engines than when Google was made but the process is still complicated and requires long-term investment. Apple is not familiar with this area of expertise but Apple maps has come far from what it was in 2011 and the revenue generated from this year is enough for a long term investment, this could mean that the search engine is not far behind.

However, Dan Wang, associate professor of business at Columbia Business School, said it would be “extremely difficult” for Apple ever to catch up (Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, n.d.).

It all boils down to this

Apple has a lot to do before an alternative search engine to Google is commercialized but if the US Justice System carries on with the antitrust lawsuit, it may force Apple’s hand, leaving them no choice. Apple and Google have not yet commented on the entire debacle.