Apple uses results from the Google search engine (Google) in its products, but it may be currently working on an alternative to Google search, according to a report by the Financial Times, which stated that Apple began showing its search results in the operating system. IOS 14 (iOS 14);
Which means that Apple is intensifying its efforts to replace Google search on its devices.
According to Mashable, a technology website, indications of this are already emerging.
Referring to those changes in the operating system, "iOS 14", the site "Coywolf" (Coywolf) last August, at a time when the company was employing experts in research.
A few days ago, the New York Times revealed that the US Department of Justice had filed a lawsuit against what it described as the monopoly that Google practices in the field of Internet search, as the lawsuit stated that the search giant was using illegal methods to protect its monopoly on search.
The report also revealed that Google pays Apple an estimated $ 8 to $ 12 billion annually for Apple to incorporate Google's search engine into its products.
Now, the Financial Times says that antitrust lawsuit has prompted Apple to start working on its search engine more urgently.
The newspaper also quotes experts as saying that the "Applebot" program - a "web crawler" program, which browses the World Wide Web in a systematic, automated and organized way to provide up-to-date data for the search engine - has shown increased activity in recent weeks. It means it scours the web to gather the most amount of data, which will be helpful in building a search engine.
The Department of Justice lawsuit against Google could mean that the exclusive agreement between Google and Apple will expire, giving Apple a new incentive to focus on building its search product.
The site "Mashapel" that for a company that loves to control most aspects of its products, it seems as if this matter does not need to think, especially when looking at the enormous resources of Apple.
But copying a successful Google product is not an easy thing, and this is what Apple learned after the initial launch of its "Apple Maps" application, which suffered from many flaws and poor performance compared to the famous Google Maps application.
This is especially true for searches that Google dominated for two decades, with very few competitors having affected its market share.
Apple has not commented on the Financial Times story, and some experts have said that Apple cannot catch up with Google when it comes to search, but if the US government presses hard on the aforementioned monopoly issue, Apple may have to try its search engine seriously.