The news is based on reports of increased activity with Apple’s Applebot web crawler, as first reported by MacRumors this past August. It has been speculated that Apple had already begun in earnest to develop its search engine.
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In a Financial Times report syndicated by Ars Technica, it was stated “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.” The report continues, “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.” The report also cites the hiring of John Giannandrea, the former head of Google’s search, to improve the artificial intelligence capabilities of Siri and also the many job advertisements seeking search engineers over at Apple. As the Department of Justice continues its antitrust lawsuit against Google for what they’ve deemed a monopoly, the rest of us brace for what we hope will be a smooth transition to an Apple search engine that actually does the job.
