Apple possibly working on a search engine?
File this one under kinda, maybe, probably not – but the rumor du jour on this fine Thursday morning is that Apple may well be toying with the idea of taking on the Big G in the search game. On the surface, yes, this sounds patently ridiculous. Why would Apple enter a market so firmly dominated by a huge companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft? Oh wait, yeah, Apple kinda went there with the iPhone and that seems to be working out ok. Can lightning possible strike yet again as Apple enters yet another market and makes big waves? Maybe. Safari currently owns about 7% of the browser market and we all know how popular the iPhone is. Right there, Apple has a pretty big in if it was to attack Google head-on. Apple’s market share with Mac computers is also steadily rising and no one expects it to slow down any time soon. Last but not least, let us not forget how, umm, loyal Apple fans can be. If Apple were to release a high-quality search engine option, rest assured the legions of die hard Apple fans would be on board pretty quickly. If Apple is truly working on a search product, it’s definitely not going to be another Cuil. At the same time, it’s going to take a pretty phenomenal product along with some brilliant marketing to make a dent in Google’s game. If anyone is up to the task however, it might just be Cupertino…
At this pace Apple will be just like Microsoft in a few years. A giant behemoth floundering in everyone else’s wake.
Apple needs to learn from Microsoft and stop thinking they can win at everything.
Um… I don’t remember the cellphone market being dominated by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. I could be wrong though.
I guess they have to figure out something to keep the shares from dropping like flies.
Who cares?
@ Nate
you must have at some point because not only did you read it but you commented as well
Maybe this will be an extension of Spotlight. Apple search seems like a silly idea considering how much revenue Apple makes from it’s Google search tie-in.
http://gadgetsgamesandstuff.blogspot.com
They certainly have the money to burn. When you look at server requirements, infrastructure, etc. maybe you have to wonder why they’d go this route. It’d take years … just look at Safari in a competitive market … and mucho dinero.
I am a big fan of Apple, and I would try to use the search engine, but Google is a great search engine. I never realized how great it was until I was forced to use Live Search at work this summer. I’m sure Apple is just looking for a way to make Safari better on the iPhone.
@ joseph
Nope. Didn’t read it. Only cared enough to make my two word comment.
Not wanting to start a flame war, but Apple already has a search engine technology, and it doesn’t suck – Spotlight. Installed on just about every 10.4/10.5 Mac. It wasn’t that great initially, but I’m using it more often on my network – and I can find stuff pretty quickly most of the time.
Adaptive reuse of the Spotlight search engine targeted at creating a search engine for the web shouldn’t be tough. Google’s results include so much crap and porn, and both Yahoo! and Live yield so many “huh” results, I’d welcome something that just works. I can still use Google to find porn anytime!
First off, give me some reasonable search terms that shouldn’t return any pornographic results but do. i’m really curious.
If you can indeed do that, please try using the Preferences link next to the Google search box and turn on SafeSearch filtering and see if you can duplicate those results.
I think Google has it right, their engine can do both.
@ Nate
your still gay
Just like the iPhone, it might be cool, but I’m not gonna use it/buy it
I got my mac PC and that’s kinda all I want from apple
@Chris,
well sometimes people are actually looking for porn (and knowing the internet it’s probably a lot of the time), so don’t diss it!!
Apple Search? Keep dreaming. Whoever gave you this rumor must have something shoved up his ass. Boy Genius delivers another shipment of fail.
Apple’s software engineers are experts in model-view-controller architected projects, such as GUI front ends and handheld devices.
Projects that employ layered architectures, such as on-line offerings, are structured and scheduled quite a bit differently. I’m not sure if their existing talent pool of engineers and project managers can be transitioned completely without problem.
(Witness mobile-me as an example)
@ joseph
You’re clever.
Let’s see if Apple can manage mobileme first.
Strong from that success, fans can get excited
@joseph
what about that makes him gay? and learn how to spell dumb ass. when you are saying “you are” it’s abbreviated to “you’re”.
will it cost a premium to use as well?…I have a macbook, got it last September and I don’t know what all the hoopla is about…I’ve had 4 iPods because they all broke, and my macbook is annoying sometimes for numerous reasons…Apple is kind of annoying me lately…dipping into everything but what they should focus on…I agree with the first post, the higher and faster they rise the harder they will fall…
ha ha this is rediculous, apple will fall and fanboys will cry.. google owns this part of the market and also if they puiss google off too much, google just might take away google maps and gmail from apple products. ha every one already knows how apple likes to control stuff, couldnt you see apple trying to control what places you visit and what products show up in its search results, they will filter out the so called “bad” so you wont have to make a single decision on your own, awe thanks apple!
apple needs to focus and spend money on implementing these features in its iphone before dropping more cash on something else:
MMS
copy/paste
run apps in background
download stuff from safari
allow apple product competing 3rd party apps
and many more.
there gonna spread themselves too thin and then and on the next iphone there gonna leave sms out the whole thing cuz they cant afford it and it will be an old tecnology.. whoopee!!
Damn this blog has some useless posts, in cause you would like to know this a rumour which the original reporters even said they don’t think Apple would do it.
You guys DO realize that Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, sits on Apple’s Board right?? If anything this is gonna just be a front end for Google’s backend.
Good luck with that Apple, you’ll need it…
@Muntari
What part of the first sentence did you not understand, was it where they said rumor because yeah reading everything can be confusing.
I would love to see Apple Search as they probably would be quite innovative and deliver experience not found in Google.