Apple Search? It probably won’t happen.

The recent court ruling that declared Google to be a monopoly, and that Google is no longer allowed to pay Apple $2o billion + a year to be the default search engine for Apple’s Safari web browser, installed on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, has once again brought up the question – will Apple create its own search engine? While it seems like a natural solution, and many of us would like to see this happen, it seems pretty unlikely  – and a bit risky for Apple.

 

The Past Google Deal

If you did a web search by typing your query into the integrated Safari bar, that search will (unless you manually changed the default) be carried out on Google. That’s because Google paid Apple a multi-billion dollar sum each year for the privilege. For Apple, it was a worthwhile sum even by its standards, and it was almost pure profit. For Google, it got search traffic from a  dedicated Apple audience – a very valuable demographic. The deal made financial sense for both sides. But not for the other search engines – and potentially their users, the public at large. That’s why the U.S Department of Justice recently ruled this deal to be a monopolistic abuse of Google’s dominant position in search.

 

The Myth of an Apple Search Engine

For years, many have thought Apple has been seeking to replace the Google payment revenue, and actually greatly improve on it in Apple fashion, by fully integrated their very own Search Engines in their walled garden of Apple Services.  The indications were there – The company has already been indexing the web using Applebot for around a decade now – initially for Siri, and more recently to train Apple Intelligence. So many business analysts predicted that Apple was already starting the process of developing such as a service, since it already has the data, and of course, has the necessary resources to potentially build a better search engine than Google, with Apple’s distinct style flair, and adherence to User Privacy.

 

Definitely an Undertaking – It may not be worth it

One of the key elements, would be that of User Data Privacy – and while Google has been lambasted for its practices regarding privacy over the years,  all of the data derived from people’s prior web searches have given it a strong advantage in delivering relevant results, even if peppered with Sponsored Ads. Creating a search engine is a serious process – and Apple may be hesitant to invest in such an endeavor right now. Apple absolutely would not want to deliver a subpar service, nor risk being criticizing for violating user privacy – and would not take any steps that might damage its brand by affiliation.

The only potential way it could make sense is to use it as a way to further enhance the ecosystem, by implementing search in a privacy-focused way, without worrying too much about ad revenue. But that’s financially risky. Not only would Apple incur substantial costs in building and operating its own search engine, but we don’t even know whether search engines in their current form have a future.  Investing billions in re-creating Google makes even less sense at a time when Apple might find itself re-inventing a technology that’s on the verge of being made obsolete by Artificial Intelligence guided search – a completely different business model than Google is currently pursuing.

 

The $20 billion+ in revenue from Google may seem like a hefty sum, but from Apple’s perspective, it may not be enough to tip the scales. While it was significant pure profit coming in, the potential for loss in what is a rapidly changing search ecosystem – may just be too much risk for Apple to jump into becoming its own search provider anytime soon.