UPDATED: Apple's secret plan to grab a chunk of the search market
I've had my iPhone since the day it came out. I love everything about it except the phone part (AT&T is nowhere as good as Sprint).
As soon as I got my phone I noticed: Searching for search on the iPhone - where is it?
We are not far from the 1 year launch anniversary. And there is still no search function on the iPhone.
There have been many software updates sine the iPhone was released. And still no search function on the iPhone.
This is not an omission, it has to be deliberate. The reason has to be that Apple is about to launch a search engine.
It makes sense.
Here is my reasoning:
The difference between search engines is narrowing. I trust Google but I use it out of habit. I don't know if it has the best search results, I have trust that it does.
Take a look at this study, it is small but indicative of the power of brand:
href="http://searchengineland.com/070628-094242.php">Study: Good Brand Can Make Search Seem More Relevant
The study showed that when a searcher was given an identical result set across Google, Yahoo, Windows Live Search and an in house search engine, Google and Yahoo came out as more relevant. Why? Because of the brand of the search engine.
Despite the results pages being identical in content and presentation, participants indicated that Yahoo! and Google outperformed MSN Live Search and the in-house search engine.
Trust is in the realm of brand management. I have trust in Apple products, I use them a lot. If Apple Search launched and it could search my iPhone as well as the Internet, I would have trust in Apple and judge it a good service. I might even start using the search serrvice using it on my Mac, especially if it is part of Safari.
Also, consider this: The web browser and search service have become the operating system for our online world. Apple is all about owning the OS.
Apple has its Safari web browser but it does not have a search service. Again, Apple is all about owning its own OS.
Microsoft has its own OS, web browser and search service, and it trying to grab more of the search services market by acquiring Yahoo!. MSFT is all about owning the OS.
(Google's proxy in the browser space is Mozilla.)
There is more here(click here for more...)