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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

#91

Post by kyleee »

zeta0134 wrote: post #82
mgh2 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't like my search results mingled with the advertising industry: there is bias in all results, you can't trust in information if it is not impartial. People used to create content to advance knowledge, but the amount of crap nowadays motivated my money (even if it is good quality) concerns me about the education of the human civilization as a whole. "The love of money (greed) is the root of all evil": G…

I wonder if there'd be any value in a search engine that recognized popular third-party ad networks and simply did not add to its index any page which includes them. (Or, at least, provided users an option to filter those results out.)

It's a constant high stakes cat and mouse game though. A good idea for sure but the ad networks will expend incredible effort to avoid the filters

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

#92

Post by jjcon »

themodelplumber wrote: post #85
baq wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ddg is 99% bing.

Man that 1% of icing is pretty amazing then.

Do you see large differences between ddg and bing? I get close to the same results on both sites especially for images

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

#94

Post by kabes »

danudey wrote: post #65
dividedbyzero wrote: post #14

I hope they do – Google is far, far, far too dominant in this space, and small-ish incumbents don't really stand a chance. If they keep up their privacy-friendly stance, this could really become something neat. I'd like for at least a little bit of competition in the gatekeeper-for-human-knowledge space.

Maybe they should build their own indexing backend and buy up DuckDuckGo for the frontend/user base/etc.

Why would they? If Apple makes it the default search engine on iOS they immediately dwarf the ddg user base. And the front end is the easy part of a search engine.

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

#95

Post by mantap »

ogre_codes wrote: post #83
dividedbyzero wrote: post #14

I hope they do – Google is far, far, far too dominant in this space, and small-ish incumbents don't really stand a chance. If they keep up their privacy-friendly stance, this could really become something neat. I'd like for at least a little bit of competition in the gatekeeper-for-human-knowledge space.

For me, this is the big reason to celebrate this. A duopoly in search is at least marginally better than a monopoly. If Maps is any indication, people will bitch about it for a year or so, but after 2 years, 80%+ of users will be using it. Personally, I'd love if Apple put this out there ad-free. Getting clean, honest search results was why I switched to Google to start with. Google's current platform where almost al…

Apple maps is probably a good example because outside the US it is still useless, 8 years later. I don't expect an Apple search engine to be any different.

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

#96

Post by ehsankia »

jessedhillon wrote: post #90
nostrademons wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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 productivit…

Google Assistant really wow'ed me when, to settle a dinner table debate, I asked "Ok Google, on the TV show 'Friends', what was the name of the game show Joey hosted?" Before that, I'd never engaged with this device, which we got for free as part of a promo, and which sat on our bookshelf doing nothing. It truly amazes me that GA is able to give a relevant response here. First, Joey never hosts it, he just auditions…

Google is surprisingly good at answering questions like that. The rise of voice assistant really has pushed them into improving their knowledge graph and condensing search results into a single sentence. The conciseness has been getting even better too. I notice often it'll actually give a one word answer, followed by a 1-2 sentence context.

For example, I asked "what kind of soap can I use on my cats" and it gave a one word "castile soap" followed by the sentence. (I actually Googled it, and it's like that on Search too).

It's super useful when you quickly want an answer to something you were wondering. A nice touch is also how it sends the link to your phone to look deeper into it.

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

#97

Post by jjcon »

rising-sky wrote: post #81

If this eventually bears out in reality, will not be surprised if they make an attempt to buy DuckDuckGo since they align on privacy as a business model. However, I'm not certain how I would feel about the concentration in a few large players, which would be the outcome of that, although it sounds like it might increase rather than decrease the level of competition...

I doubt they would buy ddg since it is entirely reliant on Microsoft’s bing.

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

#98

Post by nostrademons »

punnerud wrote: post #71
nostrademons wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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 productivit…

My toddler can’t turn Google Home on. He have probably tried over 300 times the last year. Seems like it is not trained on enough child voices in foreign languages. I had to record my voice for him on the iPad, so he can use it. Just with the short “Hey Google”, in Norwegian. He pronounces it correct. The only difference is the high pitch/tone of a child.

I've had reliability problems with my toddler as well, and I suspect it's the treble voices. My primary device (for him) is an LG TV, though, which is push-to-talk. As long as he holds the mic up to his mouth properly it'll usually get what he's saying. (It probably also helps that he's speaking American English).

I don't think my Nest Hub Max or Google Home Mini has ever caught the "Hey Google" when he says it, but it doesn't really matter for our use-cases with him.

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

#99

Post by jjcon »

greendude29 wrote: post #45
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.

DDG is just bing reskinned for the most part so I sincerely doubt Apple would be interested in it

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

#100

Post by ehsankia »

ramenmeal wrote: post #26
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.

I ask my google assistant random questions. "How long does Orange Juice last in the fridge?", "What is ____". I'm pretty sure it just uses Google Search's featured snippets, but it's usually correct and understands me. Like the other poster, I wouldn't bother asking Siri the same questions.

Adding stuff to lists is definitely super useful when you remember something as you're cooking or hanging around.
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