Apple Hints To Build Own Search Engine, End Deal With 'Rival' Google

Google is known to pay billions of dollars to Apple to be the default search engine on its iOS, macOS as well as iPadOS. The partnership has been going strong for several years. Now there seem to be signs that Apple will end it soon to avoid the scrutiny of market regulators in the UK.

Listed in a report by Coywolf are reasons to believe that Apple might soon be launching its own search engine. These clues range from job listings for search engineers by the Cupertino tech giant to it completely bypassing Google lately for displaying search results.

These are what these are at the moment - hints. Nothing is official as of now but as things stand, it would not be a surprise if Apple decides to come up with its own search engine. With several of its platforms now enjoying full maturity, this might be time for a new direction. Considering Apple is the most valued company in the world, there is no visible challenge stopping it from doing that.

Regulatory stress

(Image: Reuters)

By itself, Apple might not have been motivated enough for pursuing a search engine of its own. The deal with Google, least to say, easily benefited both parties. It was, however, recently considered to be ¡°a significant barrier to entry and expansion¡± for Google¡¯s rival search engines by UK markets regulator.

A July report by UK markets regulator cited by Reuters states -

¡°Given the impact of preinstallations and defaults on mobile devices and Apple¡¯s significant market share, it is our view that Apple¡¯s existing arrangements with Google create a significant barrier to entry and expansion for rivals affecting competition between search engines on mobiles,¡±

At the moment, this report by the market regulators is considered to be the biggest propellant for Apple to break off the deal. There are other hints that point that the tech giant might just be doing that.

Apple is hiring people for search

Apple job listings for search engineers

As highlighted by the Coywolf report, Apple has listed more than 600+ jobs for search engineers. While not all of them are developer-related, a considerable portion is calling for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural language processing experts.

It has started bypassing Google Search

It has been noted that with the iOS and iPadOS 14 beta, Apple has started bypassing Google Search. The search results are instead returned through Spotlight Search and are labeled ¡®Siri Suggestions¡¯.

Apple has been working on its web crawler

The report mentions that Applebot, Apple¡¯s own web crawler, has been crawling sites regularly. An Applebot support page was also updated recently with new details about the crawler. The information imparted through it resembles that which Google provides to webmasters and SEOs. This includes the parameters which determine search rankings on Apple¡¯s devices.

The indications are there and if true, might soon result in one of the most cohesive search engines in the market. Considering this would also power Apple¡¯s voice assistant Siri and its searches, the search results might be linked far back to the user¡¯s contacts, files, messages, events, emails and what not.