Apple trying to develop its own search engine; Google ties could be cut soon....

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.

Google’s dominance of the search engine landscape could be under threat with reports that Apple is ramping up its own search engine. Google is the main search provider in Apple devices. As of now Google pays Apple between $10b and $12b a year. But that deal will soon expire and a reported antitrust case against Google by the US Department of Justice could prevent its extension.

Its Applebot, which was first reported of in 2014, has been crawling the web ever since and has allegedly increased its rate substantially recently. This tell us Apple has already made moves for a transition away from Google. Furthermore, in iOS 14's home screen search, Apple has begun to link directly to websites, which helps bypassing Google entirely.

The company hired Google’s head of search, John Giannnandrea, over two years ago and has been openly recruiting search engineers since, to the point where Apple has a “credible team” to “build a more general search engine”, according to a former Google engineering chief, Bill Coughran, who spoke to the FT.

Till now I have no idea about what shape or form an Apple search engine could take. If it will be an enhanced Spotlight on iOS and OS X devices or if it will be a full-blown website like Google.com. There are signs that search engine may already be operational, with webmasters reporting increased activity from Applebot, the company’s web crawler, which explores the web in search of new sites and content to index.

But it's becoming clearer that Apple and Google's practices of receiving payment to be the primary search provider on millions of devices would soon face regulatory pressure. Google's payments to Apple are reportedly around 20% of Apple's services revenue.

One thing is sure, Apple becoming a search giant because of its commitment towards the privacy. In an open letter to its customers Apple CEO Tim Cook once said: "Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you" I have no idea how Apple could create a successful search engine without building a profile around a user's browsing habits or using that customer's stored data on the iPhone as a means to better search results.