{"id":30629,"date":"2020-11-10T14:36:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T19:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=30629"},"modified":"2024-06-15T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T18:06:11","slug":"apple-developing-web-search-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/10\/apple-developing-web-search-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Developing Web Search Technology?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Bradshaw and Patrick McGee<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In a little-noticed change to the latest version of the iPhone operating system, iOS 14, Apple has begun to show its own search results and link directly to websites when users type queries from its home screen.<\/p>\n

That web search capability marks an important advance in Apple’s in-house development and could form the foundation of a fuller attack on Google, according to several people in the industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Dan Moren<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In some ways, it’s probably better to think of this as an extension of the Spotlight search technology that Apple’s been building out for the last fifteen years. It just happens to include search results for the web alongside results from your own data.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I pretty quickly turned off some of iOS 14’s new search features, because I found it annoying to have web search results pop up when I really just wanted to search for something on my iPad.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This seems to refer to Siri web suggestions that used to only display within the Safari address bar but are now in Spotlight. As far as I can tell, these are exactly the same suggestions but surfaced in a different place.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Bradshaw and McGee make no reference to having any sources at Apple, only quotes from a handful of people in adjacent businesses. Maybe they have background information from people who are familiar with Apple’s efforts, but nothing is cited in this article. The claim that Apple is, perhaps, working on a direct competitor to Google’s web search engine appears to be nothing more than speculation about what Apple could<\/em> do from people who believe that it is something Apple is<\/em> doing. That position seems to be predicated on regulatory pressures and recent hires[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n