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CAMBRIDGE, England: Small corners of the internet are ablaze with the news that Apple has significantly increased the activity of its search robots.
Search bots often scan websites to rank and index them for search engine results. When you search for something on a search engine, the results that appear are sorted by “ranking”, which means that the result that is most accurate for what you are looking for appears at the top.
This spike in activity also comes alongside pressure from the UK competition commission to break Apple’s multi-million dollar deal with Google.
The agreement ensures that Google is the default search engine for Apple’s iOS devices. Many now anticipate that Apple is on track to launch its own search engine soon.
READ: Apple develops a search engine to compete with Google: Report
Apple’s entry into the search engine market comes 11 years after Microsoft’s Bing made its debut, Google’s only other notable competitor to date.
FILE PHOTO: A Google search page is viewed through a magnifying glass in this photo illustration taken in Berlin on August 11, 2015 (Photo: REUTERS / Pawel Kopczynski / File Photo).
Bing is by no means a success story, despite what Microsoft’s public relations team claims, and it continues to pale in comparison in terms of economic performance and market power to Google’s ubiquitous search platform.
In fact, every academic year my colleague Dr. Kamal Munir and I teach a case about Bing to the Cambridge MBA as a warning of what happens if you choose to go head-on against entrenched platforms.
However, unlike Microsoft’s Bing, Apple’s initial tactic is quite different and is likely to produce a better result.
RESTORATION OF THE RULES OF COMMITMENT
One of the biggest mistakes Microsoft made with the launch of Bing was following the same ad-based business model that Google used. In this business model, search users enter what they are looking for and based on that, the search engine also displays relevant ads that might interest them.
For such a business to be profitable, you need a large number of searching users, as well as a large number of advertisers willing to sell to them, along with millions of websites scanned by the search bots mentioned above.
All three are necessary to display useful search results for the user and to attract the right customer to the advertiser.
READ: Comment: Apple is ahead of the curve with the iPhone 12. That can be a problem
In between, Google gets paid to match the right ads to the right users. The more searches performed, the more useful the results will be.
The more useful the results, the better the ad targeting. Bing fought to get this virtuous cycle started and never reached the scale that Google enjoys with its search offering.
Microsoft office building
Apple’s search engine will have a different future if the rumors about its business model are true. Recently, he has focused heavily on user privacy, including, but not limited to, publicly refusing to give secret access to his devices to the FBI.
It will be very much in line with this “privacy first” position that Apple chooses not to make money from advertising, which involves exposing customer usage data to third parties.
READ: Comment: When our insatiable appetite for data can harm the environment, too
Instead, you could simply sell more of your highly profitable devices and subscriptions to privacy-conscious customers. By not following in Google’s footsteps, Apple doesn’t have to commit to the search giant on their terms.
THE BEST PRODUCT FALLACY
When Bing launched, it had features that Google didn’t have at the time. This included a “hover preview” of search results, as well as a specialization in travel, shopping, local business, and health searches.
In terms of the quality of the search results, Microsoft claimed to have similar or better results than Google. Despite its apparent product superiority, Bing never won the search engine wars.
This aspect of search engine history plays in Apple’s favor, which does not need to differentiate itself from Google. In fact, Apple’s search results must be “good enough” to be adopted by its users en masse.
An iPhone on display in a kiosk at an Apple reseller store. (Photo: REUTERS / Shailesh Andrade)
We can see this from the results of Apple Maps, which were released in 2012. Despite a public release due to its poor geographic coverage, Apple Maps gained a dominant 60 percent market share among iPhone users. from the UK in just under a year of release.
The same goes for Apple Music, which has become the second-largest music streaming player despite a nine-year lead from Spotify.
DISRUPTIVE SIDE EFFECTS
With its latest update to iOS 14, Apple has already started to flip Google’s search results in favor of its own. Most iOS users have hardly noticed the change for all the reasons mentioned above.
But this silent exchange doesn’t come without its own set of challenges. By using its search engine instead of Google on its devices, Apple will open itself up to monopoly criticism of competition fees in a variety of markets.
READ: Comment: Is this the end of Google as we know it?
It is also likely to upset the advertising industry, which could lose its reach with Apple customers. Apple’s customer base is coveted thanks to its above-average purchasing power, and by making it easier for users to avoid search ads, Apple could create a tectonic shift in the advertising industry as a whole.
Google’s dominance in Internet searches won’t end with Apple’s entry into the foray, but it would definitely weaken in the face of growing consumer preference for privacy.
Given that Google’s business model differs dramatically from Apple’s, the search giant will likely have to learn to live awkwardly with its rival’s search engine rather than turn around to compete head-on.
Hamza Mudassir is a visiting fellow for strategy at Cambridge Judge Business School. This comment first appeared on The Conversation.
