Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

Post by three_seagrass » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 10:30 PM UTC

jobu wrote: post #114

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.

I'm a little surprised that Apple hasn't bought DuckDuckGo. Their privacy goals seem to mostly overlap and DuckDuckGo has really gotten good. Lately I've found them to be as good or better than Google for most technical or informational searches. The results are accurate and they seem to have less of a problem with bogus results from content scraping sites. Google really does shine at location based searches though.…

Post by gerash » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 10:31 PM UTC

blazar wrote: post #18

Finally, a way to opt out of AMP links on Safari -.-

Post by gerash » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #15

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…

Microsoft has very deep pockets and created a solid search platform in Bing but they still struggle against Google. Microsoft used ownership of Windows to push their Edge browser (both the original and new flavor) but still struggled against Chrome. For Apple to succeed, they don't need to be "as good," they need to be significantly better or differentiated. One way might be to focus on privacy and play on fears. Com…

Post by simonh » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 10:36 PM UTC

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.

Post by ianai » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

flukus wrote: post #117

elihu wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a great opportunity now for a new search engine that evaluates the general spamminess of a site, and then punishes sites that link to spammy sites.

Punishing slow complicated sites and sites with annoying newsletter or cookie notifications would be nice too. Promote simple, fast readable sites with no dark patterns. There's plenty of room for improvement in search. DDG is already edging ahead because it searches for what I want, not what it thinks I want.