The secret is out! Apple is building its own search engine.
Apple won’t be able to compete head-to-head with Google in search overnight. But the fact that it is trying? This is the interesting move, for a company known more for its brilliantly-designed products. Just as interesting is the answer to “why now?”
This ties into the DOJ antitrust case against Google that I analyzed last week. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is putting the $8 to $12 billion every year that Google pays to Apple at the center of its case. Google pays that amount to appear as the default search engine on iPhones. Certainly, before this came to light, Apple was already looking to de-couple from Google.
Apple’s profits from Google are certainly nice - but it creates a dependency on Google.
Also, don't forget 'Hey Siri' vs. 'OK Google' - Siri will need its own source of information. Otherwise it will constantly provide data to train Google, its competition.
It surely won’t be easy for Apple to disengage from Google. But then again, building its own technology is nothing new for Apple. Most recently Apple announced that is is moving away from Intel's chips - and unifying all the hardware (Mac, MacBook, iPhone, iPad) using the same code and dev environment. Where there’s a will (and about $200 billion in the bank) there’s a way.
It will be a long time before Apple can build a search engine that is remotely usable. Just look at the challenge of finding the talent who can build a reasonable alternative.
Google currently employs close to 114,000 people. I am sure not all of them are working on search. Let's say 5 percent are directly involved with the Google search engine. That's about 6,000 people.
Many of the people Apple hires to help them build their search engine will come from Google. But that carries risks. Apple will have to be careful not to end up like Uber, being sued by Google for stolen information.
While we are on the topic of building a search engine, I am frequently asked how I do my (re)search for these newsletters and all of my videos, podcasts, etc.
I use Hiswai. It’s a search engine where you put your topic of interest, select relevant tags and from then on, you get notification when something new happens - just plug it and forget it. If you’re using multiple tags (some optional, some required) then It’s actually much easier to use than Google!)
Even better? I can share my search results with others just with one click.
Here is an example of my search dashboards:
- Quantum computing
- COVID Vaccine
- Cryptocurrencies
The quest for finding the right information is still at its beginning and more innovation is coming to a device near you. Just remember: every search starts with the right question.
And that's the recurrent pattern.