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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

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you really want your toddler to be able to turn it on though?

[deleted]

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

#152
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn't buy companies for their user base. And while DDG's front end was innovative 20 years ago when Google did it, it's pretty basic (which I love) and shouldn't be too difficult to copy. The big challenge with search is the index.

I spent a lot of time digging through all the oft-mentioned search engines here, and the interfaces between G, B, DDG and the others (Runnaroo, Startpage, etc) are all surprisingly similar. And they're all pretty unappealing (to me). Visualizations of results have improved so much in the last 10+ years, hopefully "visualization of search results" can also be advanced.

As the creator of the upstart search engine on that list (Runnaroo), I do try to differentiate it from the the search providers, but there is a risk of being too different from what people expect.

Take a look at the below search [0], it is distinctly different from the SERPs of the other search engines for the same query, but you are correct that we still focus on just listing information vs. visualizing it. Maybe something for us to explore.

From a search visualization perspective, check out Carrot2 [1] for something more innovative. Swisscows [2] also has some nice visualization elements.

[0] https://www.runnaroo.com/search?term=full+text+search+php

[1] https://www.runnaroo.com/search?term=carrot2

[2] https://swisscows.com/

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

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I'd love if Apple put this out there ad-free. Apple isn't a charity.

They aren't, but they make a decent amount of money from other things.

Exactly. They do things that make money. This removes a big source of money, adds a big cost, and worsens user experience.

I'd love it if they made Apple Music and Apple TV free too.

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

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn't buy companies for their user base. And while DDG's front end was innovative 20 years ago when Google did it, it's pretty basic (which I love) and shouldn't be too difficult to copy. The big challenge with search is the index.

I don't think the index is the challenge. Anyone with enough machines and gigabits can index a big enough portion of "the web". The real difficult part is ranking and understanding web pages themselves.

> The real difficult part is ranking and understanding web pages themselves.

This is what I was referring to.

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

#156
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I switched to Apple Maps a few months ago and haven't run into any issues using it in various cities in Germany.

The main missing feature for me used to be public transit routing, but they added that a few updates ago and it generates pretty much identical itineraries to Google Maps.

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

#157
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.

This is interesting to me. As someone who works at Google, and is a huge Android fan (and Apple hater), I am constantly astounded at how bad Assistant seems to be for me, and how good Siri seems to be for my friends. Maybe I just speak really unclearly? Unfortunately, basically all of my friends have iPhones (even at Google), so it's hard to know if it's just me.

As iPhone users, your friends probably have learned exactly what Siri is and is not capable of and only use it publicly for things they know Siri can handle. Privately, you’ve all seen how badly your phones’ assistants fail, but you’re only aware of the times Assistant has failed on you.

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

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Personally, I'd love if Apple put this out there ad-free. Apple isn't a charity.

> Apple isn't a charity.

I don't necessarily expect this will be the case, I was just saying that I would very much prefer it. Apple doesn't charge for or have advertising on quite a few services so it's a crap shoot which way they will go. But if they want large-scale adoption, they need a big differentiation and zero adverts is a good start.

I do doubt Apple would launch a search page that is as buries organic results below the fold the way Google does now though.

For me, the clean look DDG sports is Apple's big competition at this point. If they don't deliver as-good-as-or-better results and interface as DDG, then I'll stick with DDG as my default (and Google as my "I can't find it on DDG" backup).

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

#159
post #116
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the antitrust against Google search. You can just click on Bing and start searching there as soon as Bing becomes even slightly better. On the other hand, you can't "click" on Android and suddenly switch to Android (or from Android to iOS) if Android this year becomes slightly better. It's designed to be a real uphill battle to switch (re-purchase all the media: apps, movies, shows, etc.), unhook imessage…

I'm no expert, but it's not just that they dominate the search market, it's that they use that position in less than ideal ways. For example, Google Snippets takes away valuable traffic from sites. Google has also been accused of prioritizing their own results over competitors.

You're conflating topics. I'm saying the cost of switching is trivially low for search engines. The moment Bing becomes better I can switch to it with a "single click". The moment I like something about Android or iOS I can't switch with a "single click".

Whether or not a search engine should be barred from showing snippets is a different topic IMO.

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