Personalisation vs privacy: why Apple should enter the search engine fight
“Google it” has become the shorthand, but what about a future where we “Apple it” for online searches? Nick Beck, CEO and founder of Tug, explores the possibilities.
Speculation about an Apple search engine has spun around the digital rumour mill for over a decade. But recent signs the tech giant might be stepping up its search game are now sending these rumours into overdrive.
Evidence isn’t just about changes to Spotlight Search, which has started returning its own results and linking iPhone users directly to webpages since the iOS 14 update. Applebot, Apple’s tool for crawling the net and adjusting search functions, has apparently been more active lately and its support page also includes new details about how searches are ranked. Combined with the previous hire of ex-Google search lead John Giannendrea, and recent job postings for search engineers, and it seems the rumours may actually be true.
But if a search battle is on its way, the real question is whether Apple should tackle the global market’s most powerful player, and what that would mean.
