Will apple’s own search engine Applebot will be as smart as Google

Apple Search Engine 

Isn’t it great news? Apple appears to be taking the first steps to build a better search engine for Siri. The Applebot is a new Web crawler from Apple, designed to improve search for its Siri voice assistant.

Applebot, a new crawler will be used for archiving information on the Web for search. The short support page notes that the Applebot will be used for the Siri voice assistant and for Spotlight suggestions in iOS and Mac OS X. The new crawler could be Apple’s first foray into replacing the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo for search results in iOS and Mac OS. Or it could be exactly as the support document states and just a way to make Siri and Spotlight better.

What is Siri?

Siri is a part of Apple Inc.'s iOS which works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. The feature uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services.

Is Siri’s functionality really boosted?

Apple’s Siri may be popular, but it is arguably the least capable at retrieving any and all information that a user may need. The reason for this is that Siri isn’t based on its own dedicated search engine, but rather acts as a tie-in to other search engines (like Wolfram Alpha and Bing), apps, websites and databases.

In comparison, Google Now is powered by Google’s search engine and all the information the company has on a user. Google Now attempts to supply users with information before they need it by knowing the usage and behavior of the user, including websites visited, location and search history.

Microsoft’s Cortana assistant is based on its Bing search engine along with all the capabilities of the Azure cloud and Office platforms. Cortana is capable of taking notes for the user and offering suggestions and reminders based on the user’s calendar, email, contacts and so forth.

Siri is not far behind Cortana and Google Now when it comes to functionality, but it is a much more piece-together integration than the holistic approaches from Microsoft and Google.

Google v/s Applebot

Assuming that Apple really is building a search engine, chances are it's not likely to be a direct attack on Google -- no one is going to switch their search engine to applesearch.com and Apple knows that. Instead, any search effort is far more likely to be baked into Siri, Safari and Spotlight, i.e. places where most won't dig through the options and change their search engine.

Why? Let's look at some history

• After initially being the best of friends, Apple and Google are in the midst of a not-so-cold war, thanks largely to Mountain View's decision to get involved in the Smartphone battle. That's led to Apple reducing its reliance on Google, even doing things that upset its users like removing Google Maps and YouTube as default iOS apps.
• More subtle changes have come through Siri, which taps services like Bing, Yahoo and Wikipedia for information, rather than Google.

These small changes have helped marginalize Google's hold on iOS users, and flipping the switch on Apple Search in Safari would be a continuation of its efforts in this area.

But why build your own engine when alternatives already exist?

We've already established that Apple is in a quite a Google-free place right now, but it's not exactly standing on its own two feet! Its reliance on Bing, in particular, may be daunting given Microsoft is a direct competitor in many areas. Apple Search would be a good way of breaking those ties. An Apple search engine, as crazy as it sounds, could have a big impact on Google in the long run!

Let’s hope for the best!