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Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

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Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#41

Post by nostrademons »

adwww wrote: post #13
adoxyz wrote: post #6

If it's anything like Siri, I'll pass. Went back to the iOS ecosystem last year after being in Android/Google land for the past decade. I used Google Assistant on a daily basis easily 20-30 times and 99% of the time it got me what I needed. Siri can't even do a 1/10th of the things I used GA for, and that 1/10th that it does, it does so poorly that I don't even bother anymore.

What sort of tasks were you using GA for? I use mine to turn a smart plug on or off, and set a timer when cooking. Nothing else I've ever wanted to do via my Pixel 2 is reliable enough to waste time trying. Sending a WhatsApp while driving is the one thing I keep wanting to do, but it's hopeless.

[Disclaimer: I work on Google Assistant. I just started though; I'm much more of a user than an engineer at this point.]

I use it a lot for media stuff. "Play by ", "Watch on Netflix", etc. My wife is very fond of the combined alarm + YouTube functionality: "Wake me up at 7:00 AM with deep meditation music". My toddler has learned to say "Hey Google watch videos of dump trucks". I use it a bunch for basic productivity stuff too: "What's my agenda for today?" "What's my agenda for tomorrow?" "Check my e-mail".

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#42

Post by foobarian »

uniqueid wrote: post #9
onion2k wrote: post #5

It's always a tempting story - Apple have the resources, they could make a lot of money from making it the Safari and iOS default, and they're pushing in to services for growth, but people have been suggesting that Apple will launch a search engine "soon" for at least a decade. It hasn't happened yet and there's no particularly significant reason to believe it'll happen now. That said, it would be nice if Google had…

My take is that the timing is perfect, so the rumor is likely true, but that Apple is going to screw it up royally. This is a great time for a big competitor to start a search engine. Google's reputation and search quality aren't what they used to be. Google is also in a MS antitrust situation, where they have to fight with a hand behind their back. If Apple were to work with others to set up some sort of "search fou…

Unless they also build an ad network to go with the search engine this will be a money sink and nobody good will want to work on it. Internal incentives will line up such that it will be guaranteed to languish.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#43

Post by partiallypro »

colinbartlett wrote: post #30

If privacy is the focus, could Apple acquire Duck Duck Go and get a head start? Or is there no reason to get a head start when you have virtually unlimited resources?

Duck uses Bing's index, for the most part...they should just partner with Microsoft if they were wanting to do that.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#44

Post by Hamuko »

novok wrote: post #25
adwww wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of tasks were you using GA for? I use mine to turn a smart plug on or off, and set a timer when cooking. Nothing else I've ever wanted to do via my Pixel 2 is reliable enough to waste time trying. Sending a WhatsApp while driving is the one thing I keep wanting to do, but it's hopeless.

Siri often fails even switching lights on and off, it can be very idiosyncratic in how it does and interprets stuff

I asked Siri to turn on my lights today. I was told that I did not have any lights set up. Then I rephrased my request to turn on the lights. "Coming right up".

Of course, there's also the regular "I'm sorry, but some of your devices did not respond" response from my Watch, forcing me to issue the same command to my iPhone for it to work.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#45

Post by greendude29 »

colinbartlett wrote: post #30

If privacy is the focus, could Apple acquire Duck Duck Go and get a head start? Or is there no reason to get a head start when you have virtually unlimited resources?

Oh god I hope not. I use DDG as my full time search engine. I don't need Apple coming in, limiting it to their walled garden and ruining it.

You might be onto something though since DDG and Apple signed a deal on the default maps for DDG.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#46

Post by spike021 »

adoxyz wrote: post #24
adwww wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of tasks were you using GA for? I use mine to turn a smart plug on or off, and set a timer when cooking. Nothing else I've ever wanted to do via my Pixel 2 is reliable enough to waste time trying. Sending a WhatsApp while driving is the one thing I keep wanting to do, but it's hopeless.

Basic things that I feel like should be trivial for Siri to handle. The biggest issue by far is how bad the voice dictation is for sending messages. It almost never gets it right. I'm not opposed to an Apple search engine if it works. Would happily use it. But the way Siri has stagnated doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence for me.

That's odd. I use Siri with CarPlay in my car and a very low-quality mic from an aftermarket headunit, and it's able to capture probably 80%, if not more, of my voice-to-texts when I'm trying to text people hands-free.

The only real issue Siri has there more often is when I ask it a more complicated query for playing music a certain non-trivial way, like "Play music by X from their latest album" or similar.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#48

Post by Paul-ish »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #17
giarc wrote: post #10

Scott Galloway talked about this in a recent Pivot Podcast. He predicts it will launch after the US DOJ announces anti-trust actions against Google. If they do it soon, Google will just point to Apple to say "We aren't the only game in town... this $2 trillion dollar company just launched a search engine on a few billion phones/tablets/PCs around the world." They have reason to wait.

Monopolist in one market refrains from competing in another market in order to weaponize antitrust investigation into competitor from a third market.

There is not guarantee that Apples search engine will succeed. It would be suck if it stuck around just long enough for Google to use it as a fig leaf.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#49

Post by Hamuko »

jdeibele wrote: post #38

Google Maps is slightly superior to Apple Maps but the gap continues to narrow and it's possible that Apple will pull ahead. The competition between the two means that it's important for new features to be added and incorrect data to be fixed. On the other hand, Apple's search in the App Store app is so bad that I use DDG or Google to search for apps.

>Google Maps is slightly superior to Apple Maps but the gap continues to narrow and it's possible that Apple will pull ahead.

How many places does Apple Maps have their version of Street View for?

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#50

Post by soperj »

giarc wrote: post #10

Scott Galloway talked about this in a recent Pivot Podcast. He predicts it will launch after the US DOJ announces anti-trust actions against Google. If they do it soon, Google will just point to Apple to say "We aren't the only game in town... this $2 trillion dollar company just launched a search engine on a few billion phones/tablets/PCs around the world." They have reason to wait.

How is it any difference than having Microsoft as a competitor?
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