Apple reportedly building its own Google search alternative and it might be coming soon

Google search alternative: In order to tackle the search engine monopoly enjoyed by Google, Apple seems to be working on the development of an alternative search engine at a fast pace. The issue has been in speculation for long now, but now, the speculation has gained momentum due to the fact that the search functionality in recently launched iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 does not need support from Google to address the queries posed by users. Apart from that, Apple had also reportedly posted about job openings for search engineers, indicating that it was working on developing an indigenous alternative.

There is also the fact that the antitrust lawsuit filed by the US against Google could be a threat to the payment Apple gets from Google annually for keeping it as the default search engine on its devices.

A report by Financial Times has highlighted that the latest OS updates were adding to the pile of evidence that the Cupertino-based smartphone manufacturer is thinking of moving away from Google. In the latest OS, users can search for web results by going to the search box on the home screen. There, the users are shown links that direct users to websites instead of search results from Google.

While the smartphone giant did not put much stress on this change when it announced the new update back in June, it does have some details in the dedicated search section on its website on the new software updates.

In its details, the giant stated that searching was now easier as the users would need to start typing what they were looking for in the search bar and would get the relevant websites and search suggestions at the top. Clicking on any of these links would quickly open the Safari browser for a full web search.

The report by FT also stated that John Giannandrea, Google’s head of search, was hired by the Cupertino tech giant back in 2018. While it appeared as a way to upgrade the AI capabilities and Siri assistant at Apple, the fact remained that Giannandrea did bring with himself eight years worth of experience of working on Google Search.

At present, Google pays Apple between $ 8 billion and $12 billion a year as a fee to continue keeping it as the default search engine on devices running on iOS. However, with the US’ move to sue Google for paying huge sums of money to companies for keeping its search engine as the most dominant one, it could leave Apple without that money. Moreover, if the Apple-Google deal is cancelled by regulators, Cupertino would need an alternative.

However, since nothing has been officially confirmed by the iPhone maker yet, whether it really is working on a search engine is still speculative.