Apple might be ramping up its development of a search engine to rival Google as the latter faces anti-trust scrutiny, according to a new report.
Rumors persisted that Apple has been developing its own search engine to replace Google on its devices, but those efforts might be ramping up – just as Google is facing potential anti-trust actions by the US Department of Justice. Apple is likely to have been working on this search engine for years, according to a Financial Times report citing key hirings and software hints as evidence that is more suggestive than conclusive. The report prominently cites Apple’s 2018 hiring of John Giannandrea, former Google head of search, to improve AI tech and Siri, while other job listings suggested Apple’s effort to improve search. Meanwhile, the Applebot web crawler has seen increased activity for years, potentially laying the groundwork for a search engine.
