Apple switches from Bing to Google for Siri web search on iOS and Mac Spotlight

Post by wolco » Tue, Sep 26, 2017, 6:32 PM UTC

greggman wrote: post #90

millstone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree strongly. Apple pays a serious price for their privacy stance, which they would rather not pay. Doing machine learning on-device makes it less effective. Apple's directions aren't as good as they could be because Maps randomly segments trips and masks its users identity. Apple's App Store revenues are lower because they limit how apps can identify users. This difference is deeper than business models. Compar…

Apple Genius just asked me for my username and password to my MacBook so he could type it into some service form for repairs. I don't think asking for that info is really compatible with "we care about privacy"

Post by craftyguy » Tue, Sep 26, 2017, 8:26 PM UTC

Gaelan wrote: post #33

craftyguy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a) Apple cares about their users' privacy Well, except for the whole switching-to-google thing..

FTA: > As is expected with Apple now, searches and results are all encrypted and anonymized and cannot be attributed to any individual user. Once you click on the ‘Show Google results’ link, of course, you’re off to Google and its standard tracking will apply. Clicking directly on a website result will take you straight there, not through Google. Not perfect, but better than just opening Google directly.

Post by lostlogin » Wed, Sep 27, 2017, 12:00 AM UTC

jhasse wrote: post #150

lostlogin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Apple chooses to implement things in ways that make it way harder for them to do this. Eg Touch ID and facial recognition on the device only, not in the cloud.

Fingerprints and data for face unlock aren't stored in the cloud on Android either. Wouldn't make any sense anyway since I surely want to unlock my phone without Internet access.

Post by earenndil » Wed, Sep 27, 2017, 3:43 AM UTC

0xbear wrote: post #61

ChuckMcM wrote: post #55

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Exactly, there are two commonly used english indexes, Bing and Google. Yandex has one but they closed their local data center so it has a lot of lag getting to it from the US. Tsignal [1] claims to be building their own index, which if they are would mean there was a third index to choose from. [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/31/deepsearch_tsignal/

People seem surprised, but it's perfectly predictable. To maintain an index of sufficient quality and size costs billions of dollars a year. Heck, engineering cost alone is probably $500M for MS, and more for Google. DGG doesn't even come close to having the table stakes to play this game. Another area where table stakes are incredibly high is geo (maps).

Post by mercutio2 » Wed, Sep 27, 2017, 5:43 AM UTC

richardknop wrote: post #92

toephu2 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used Apple Maps recently? It's not that bad anymore. Just because they had bad press about it 5 years ago doesn't mean the product is still stuck in 2012.

From time to time I still accidentally open Apple Maps on my iPhone while searching for some place (tube station, restaurant, store) and almost immediately close it and use Google Maps. Apple Maps is still much worse, the UX is worse and it's much more difficult for me to find things on the map. Especially tube stations are much more visible on Google maps and I often use tube stations for orientation. On Apple Maps…