After the U.S. Justice Department filed its anti-competitive lawsuit against Google, reports say that Apple is stepping up to create its search engine to rival Google search.
Tech giant and U.S. bigtime company Apple has been reportedly increasing its development efforts to create a search engine for iPhones to rival Google search.
According to The Financial Times, Google pays Apple around $8-12 billion annually to ensure Google search is used as a default search engine on iOS devices. It has led the U.S. Department of Justice to open a case over the payments Google makes to Apple.
With the anti-competitive lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department filed against Google and the DoJ case about Google’s payments. Apple may have started a competition between two of the United States’ largest tech firms.
The latest iOS version, iOS 14, has provided a new feature for iOS devices. On iOS 14, Apple shows its search results instead of Google’s. These results are directly linked to websites when Apple users use a search engine. Additionally, iOS 14 also displays search suggestions tailored to the users’ most common search queries.
According to sources, this change shows Apple’s efforts to develop its search mechanism. Moreover, if Apple develops its search engine, it could be a great alternative to Google search, in case the partnership between Google and Apple gets blocked by authorities.
Moreover, the U.S. DoJ has marked urgent Apple’s search development. According to marketing experts, Applebot has increased its activity in recent weeks. Applebot was first launched in 2014 and was officially released in 2015.
Experts also say that because Apple is one of the largest firms in the U.S., its resources would be enough to create a Google search competitor.
Additionally, the tech giant has also been reported to recruit search experts in the previous years. Reports from 2018 stated that Apple hired John Giannandrea, Google’s head of search and A.I. chief. John Giannandrea is Apple’s current Senior V.P. or Machine Learning and A.I. Strategy chief.
Moreover, Apple has also been very actively posting job advertisements for search engineers.
“Apple is stepping up efforts to develop its search technology as U.S. antitrust authorities threaten multibillion-dollar payments that Google makes to secure prime placement of its engine on the iPhone… That web search capability marks an important advance in Apple’s in-house development and could form the foundation of a fuller attack on Google, according to several people in the industry.”
The Financial Times
Apple declined to comment regarding the development of its search engine, The Financial Times said.
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