Apple search engine development is ongoing but may take years to materialize as a ready product.
It is reportedly using the tech bought as part of its Laserlike acquisition.
It aspires the search engine tech to power other parts of its software ecosystem.
Apple is currently paying around $20 billion per year to Google for its search engine. The Cupertino-giant might hence want to come up with an in-house alternative to save that cost. Well, The Information reports that the company is working on its own search engine with help of IPs from Laserlike, a startup the company had bought a while back. So, it’s a product that’s been a long time coming. But, as you’d guess, the road to a Google-rivaling search engine may not be that smooth.
Here’s what the report tells us about Apple's search engine efforts:
Apple Search Engine with “capabilities that might compete for head-on with Google”
Search engines play a vital role in the way people use the internet and if you control that (to whatever extent possible), that’s a lot of data insights into user behavior, ad revenue, and power, of course.
So, why would Apple miss out on that, with the money and might it has?
Well, it wouldn’t. The only problem is that this is going to be a mammoth task.
A major step by Apple towards this uphill journey dates back to 2018 when it acquired Laserlike, an AI startup involved in web search and discovery personalization. Interestingly enough, the venture was co-founded by Googlers. So that is very likely Apple’s interest in this investment.
However, all those three Laserlike founders have since returned to Google and as The Information puts it, this could very well be “a potential blow” to Apple’s intentions. Thus, the Apple search engine may not be here before 2026.
In any case, Apple must be aiming to employ the intellect and efforts for not just a search engine but also for enhancing Siri, Spotlight, and App Store search results — all things Apple users would appreciate.
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G. S. Vasan
Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile
