Earlier quoted context omitted.
As with a few of their other skunkworks (POWER->X86) we have no way of knowing if they've already been hard at work on it for years and years.
The Apple Maps experience is evidence against that, though. We know that they were working on maps for years and things like PoI search were among the biggest issues. I find it hard to believe they would have done that badly if they had an in-house search team (if only because such a team would have been good at flagging problems and suggesting solutions).
Maps are a bit different to web search though. There was never a Google Maps-quality geographical database available for sale; to get good maps Apple has to send people out into the world to compile the data. It was inevitable that any competing map service would start out underwhelming, because mapping is a job that intrinsically requires a good deal of time and actual physical work to make it high quality. Web search is different; that's something you can build almost entirely in secret (apart from the odd hint when someone spots a new user agent string), without having to step out of your metaphorical basement until it's fully baked.