Apple is working on an online search engine to compete with Google as part of broader Spotlight search improvements, according to a recent report of information.
The report explains that Apple’s work on search technology is facing setbacks amid a loss of talent to Google. In 2018, Apple sought to strengthen the development of its own web search engine by buy laserlike machine learning startup, which was founded by three former Google search engineers. The company’s technology recommends websites based on user interests and browsing history. Now the founders of Laserlike are said to have returned to Google.
Apple’s research team is believed to have at least 200 employees and power the technology behind Spotlight, Siri Suggestions and answers provided by Siri. The team is still at least four years away from launching an outright replacement for Google Search, according to a person involved with the team speaking to information. While Google pays Apple around $15 billion per year to remain the default search engine on Apple devices, as Apple developing an internal rival to Google Search could increase its leverage in its periodic negotiations with Google over the deal.
Meanwhile, Apple has apparently been discussing using the technology it’s built to power the search for Apple Music and the App store. Apple currently uses this search technology to generate data for Apple teams developing apps that use natural language processing, such as the Translate app, and to use tweets to determine newsworthy events that should appear in the results and recommend Apple News articles – but it may be used more widely in the future. One of the research team’s immediate priorities would be to improve Spotlight so that it can handle “100 times more” queries than it does today.
The idea of an Apple search engine has been speculated since at least 2015, when Apple first confirmed its Applebot and posted a series of research-related job postingsand rumors surrounding the possible launch of the service resurfaced periodically.
popular stories
iOS 16.2 adds these 12 new features to your iPhone
iOS 16.2 is now available for iPhone 8 and later after two months of beta testing. Along with late-breaking additions like Apple Music Sing and Advanced Data Protection, the software update includes more than a dozen new features and changes for iPhone. Below, we’ve rounded up many of the new features available with iOS 16.2, including Apple’s new Freeform whiteboard app, two new lock screens…
AirPods Max 2: Everything we know about features and launch date
Apple’s AirPods Max was launched two years ago today, but rumors of a successor remain thin on the ground, so what exactly can we expect from the AirPods Max 2? After months of rumours, the AirPods Max started arriving at customers two years ago today, but the device now appears to be showing its age, with the second-generation AirPods Pro adding a range of technological innovations that the …
Expected 15.5-inch MacBook Air launch in spring 2023
Apple is developing a 15.5-inch MacBook Air that could launch in the spring of 2023, according to display analyst Ross Young. In a tweet shared with Super Followers, Young said production on panels designed for the MacBook Air will begin in the first quarter of 2023. A 15.5-inch MacBook Air will be sized between the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and it will be the biggest MacBook…
Samsung mocks Apple for lack of foldable iPhone in new World Cup-themed ad
In a new World Cup-themed ad, Samsung poked fun at Apple’s lack of a flippable iPhone while promoting its own Galaxy Z Flip4. In the announcement posted on one of Samsung’s Weibo accounts, the Galaxy Flip phones can be seen as fans in a football stadium, themed around the 2022 World Cup. As the Galaxy Flip phones cheer and turn around in the stands, a few smartphones, clearly resembling iPhones,…
Apple releases first public betas of iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3
Apple today launched the first beta of the upcoming iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3 updates to public beta testers, bringing the new software to the general public for the first time. The public betas come a day after Apple provided the beta to developers. Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s free beta testing program can download the iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3 betas over the air…
Will there really be another iMac Pro?
After the introduction of the Mac Studio and Studio Display to Apple’s product line, and with mixed signs of a larger Apple Silicon iMac on its roadmap, will there ever be another iMac Pro? Five years ago this week, Apple launched the iMac Pro – billed at the time as “the most powerful Mac ever made”. In March 2021, Apple announced it was discontinuing the iMac Pro. By that…
0 Comments