Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#1

Post by killwhitey » Wed, May 06, 2015, 8:36 AM UTC

Applebot, the web crawler for Apple
support.apple.com

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#2

Post by mechazawa » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:07 AM UTC

>If robots instructions don't mention Applebot but do mention Googlebot, the Apple robot will follow Googlebot instructions.

This is nice to see for a change. There are a lot of search engine bots out there and forgetting a a lot of them is easy to do.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#3

Post by JDDunn9 » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:09 AM UTC

Please let this be the beginning of an Apple search engine. We really need some better alternatives to Google.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#4

Post by joelrunyon » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:11 AM UTC

This is interesting.

A while back, I think either Cook or Jobs mentioned that Apples makes PRODUCTS and doesn't sell ADS.

If that's true (and stays true) AND this is the beginning of a search engine for them, it's going to be VERY interesting to see what it looks like.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#5

Post by kekub » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:14 AM UTC

joelrunyon wrote: post #4

This is interesting. A while back, I think either Cook or Jobs mentioned that Apples makes PRODUCTS and doesn't sell ADS. If that's true (and stays true) AND this is the beginning of a search engine for them, it's going to be VERY interesting to see what it looks like.

I think this is more about AI and offering you answers to questions like Siri does... It will not list any links. Launching a new search engine has no benefits for Apple from my point of view.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#6

Post by amelius » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:15 AM UTC

JDDunn9 wrote: post #3

Please let this be the beginning of an Apple search engine. We really need some better alternatives to Google.

For the privacy-aware, Apple used to be a good alternative for Google, but I'm afraid that soon this will no longer be the case.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#7

Post by crapplesrch » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

If you can't see the expected results, you are probably searching it the wrong way! But, it's so shiny. Yes, but all the results seem Apple specific?

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#8

Post by esteer » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:18 AM UTC

joelrunyon wrote: post #4

This is interesting. A while back, I think either Cook or Jobs mentioned that Apples makes PRODUCTS and doesn't sell ADS. If that's true (and stays true) AND this is the beginning of a search engine for them, it's going to be VERY interesting to see what it looks like.

This is more into AI than Ads. AFAIK Siri uses Wolfram Alpha for its answers. Given the way Google's knowledge graph is advancing, it totally makes sense for them to build their own AI engine.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#9

Post by BozeWolf » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:26 AM UTC

JDDunn9 wrote: post #3

Please let this be the beginning of an Apple search engine. We really need some better alternatives to Google.

My question is: why do we need an alternative really? What is better when even more companies index everything and perhaps screw with your privacy? My intuition agrees with you though. More companies == more competition. At some point privacy might be a selling point for them.

On the other hand: it is kind of crazy that when I read about "indexing the web" it starts ringing all kind of privacy bells, while apple's incentive might not even be to violate people's privacy.

Re: Applebot, the web crawler for Apple

#10

Post by phn » Wed, May 06, 2015, 9:27 AM UTC

Apple is making a smart move by not wanting to depend on anyone else.

Results may suck in the beginning, but well, competing in hard stuff is hard, this is another apple maps. Hopefully they won't get bashed so hard since this is not so user facing.