Apple is now increasing its search efforts to come up with a search engine to combat Google, the search engine giant. Apple products are one of the most famous gadgets around the world, used by many – so what could this piece of news entail for SEOs and Webmasters around the world? 

What We Know so Far

Google has been reportedly paying large sums of money (billions of dollars) to Apple for them to remain the default search browser in Apple’s Safari browser. As Apple products are one of the widely used gadgets in the world, this leads to a monopoly in searches (both in Safari and Siri) to lead to Google. Thus, this enabled Google to monopolize one of the largest avenues for them to dominate the search engine industry both in scope and possible advertising clicks. 

There is a lot more evidence that points to the rumored move by Google.

Apple Search background

Google has long paid Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine in Safari. In other words, the search engine that is used when you simply type your search term into the combined address/search bar. That drives traffic to Google, which profits from selling ads in the search results.

Google’s payment is believed to have started at $1B in the first year, and was estimated to have risen to $18-20B last year, with an even larger payment due this year.

However, Apple uses other search engines like Microsoft’s Bing in the background, for Siri searches. It has also long been rumored that Siri and Spotlight searches are in part handled by a search engine developed by Apple itself. This idea is lent weight by the company’s occasional acquisition of search companies like Topsy Labs and Laserlike.

Until very recently, however, there have been no outward signs of progress, with experts suggesting that an Apple Search service is still years away as yet.

The Purpose of an Apple Search Engine

Apple is a company that focuses on building an ecosystem between all their products. One might understand this as generating a greater experience for its users. Having their search engine would mean that Apple has direct control over giving users a more “personalized” search experience by using the data that they get from the products that the user owns. Additionally, it’s a great avenue for a tech company like Apple to have a big place to poster their content, apps, news, etc. without having to rely on a third-party like Google. 

This will also allow them to open this particular avenue to serve as an ad platform where webmasters, SEOs, and even app developers can promote or market their websites. As of now, Google has a firm hold on the majority of the users in search. This potential move by Apple can combat Google’s monopoly since a good number of mobile and tablet users use Apple products. 

Apple Business Connect

There has, however, been one very recent development that does suggest Apple is preparing to go more head-to-head with Google: the launch earlier this month of Apple Business Connect.

Apple has debuted a new tool today for businesses of all sizes to help “claim their location place cards and customize the way key information appears to more than a billion Apple users” […]

Along with helping businesses manage how they show up in Apple Maps, Business Connect will also work to organize how a company’s information appears across Apple’s Messages, Wallet, Siri, and other apps. There’s also a new way for businesses to highlight promotions, discounts, seasonal offers, and more.

While businesses can currently do all of that for free, it has all the hallmarks of Apple preparing to turn it into a potentially huge revenue-generating service – with much of that revenue replacing money businesses currently spend with Google.

A three-part “silent war” with Google

The Financial Times suggests that Business Connect could be one element of a three-part move to compete with Google:

  • Apple Maps (including Business Connect)
  • Apple Search
  • An Apple ad network

Apple Maps with Business Connect

The FT describes the launch of Business Connect within Apple Maps as a direct challenge to Google.

This is a direct challenge to Google Maps, which partners with recommendations platform Yelp to offer similar information and makes revenues from advertising and referral fees.

Business Connect goes further by taking advantage of Apple’s operating system to give iOS users unique features, such as seamless integration with Apple Pay or Business Chat, a text-based conversation tool for commerce.

While this is a long-standing rumor, the big question had always been whether Apple would want to get into what is currently a rather murky business. Google’s business model is in very large part driven by the ability to serve personalized ads, which reflect our search and web-browsing history. This is something that Apple considers too intrusive, and has sought to block though initiatives like App Tracking Transparency.

However, one strategy chief believes that Apple might take the financial hit of running its own search engine without personalized ads.

Josh Koenig, chief strategy officer at Pantheon, a website operations platform, said Apple could quickly take a bite out of Google’s 92 per cent share of the search market by not making Google the default setting for 1.2bn iPhone users.

“If Apple could build something that was essentially as good as ‘Google classic’ — Google circa 2010 when it was a simple search engine less optimised for ads revenue — people might just prefer that,” Koenig said.

Apple ad network

Apple has gradually grown its ad business over the years, including major expansion in App Store ads. One high-profile hire suggests that Apple plans to develop its own ad network – directly competing with Google, but in a privacy-respecting form.

The company hired former Google and YouTube exec Keith Weisburg for a role described as “driving the design of the most privacy-forward, sophisticated demand side platform (DSP) possible.” A DSP is a single tool that lets advertisers buy ads on multiple exchanges.

Key Takeaway

Apple has not announced any confirmation regarding this rumor so all of these are based on theories and observations. They might confirm it or they might not even release a search engine. But if they do create their own search engine, I believe big things are going to happen in the SEO industry since efforts won’t be solely directed at Google anymore. What do you think about Apple creating its own search engine? Let me know in the comments below!