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The question is does Google have any other options? No. Apple could use many alternatives (DDG, Startpage) or make their own. Google is lucky they get to pay a

by subie 9y ago

The question is does Google have any other options? No. Apple could use many alternatives (DDG, Startpage) or make their own. Google is lucky they get to pay a few billion instead of contending with Apple Search or Apple switching to alternatives.

ars 9y ago
There aren't as many alternatives as you think. DDG is Bing and Startpage is Google. There are only two [general purpose, global] search engines in the world right now: Google and Bing. And of the two Google is clearly superior. I suspect most people would use it even if Bing was the default.
- danjoc 9y ago
  >DDG is Bing That contradicts what I find on Wikipedia. DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources, including Yahoo! Search BOSS; Wikipedia; Wolfram Alpha; Bing; its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); and others. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate "Zero-click Info" boxes – grey boxes above the results that display topic summaries and related topics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Duck_Go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Duck_Go
  - ars 9y ago
    That paragraph is out of date, for example Yahoo! Search BOSS was discontinued a year and a half ago. The DuckDuckBot is hardly seen. I suspect that they initially attempted to do this, but as far as I know these days it's basically Bing. Maybe with a small amount of other sources mixed in.
- microcolonel 9y ago
  DuckDuckGo standard results are based on Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex[0] combined, in my experience most of my results seem to come through Yandex. [0]: https://duck.co/help/results/sources https://duck.co/help/results/sources.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- subie 9y ago
  Startpage is Google without user targeting. Apple switching to SP (or similar) would still return Google search results but severely hurt Google if SP really does as they say. I'd imagine legal ramifications for Apple but I do think Apple has options that keep Google paying billions.

by subie 9y ago

ars 9y ago

There aren't as many alternatives as you think. DDG is Bing and Startpage is Google. There are only two [general purpose, global] search engines in the world right now: Google and Bing. And of the two Google is clearly superior. I suspect most people would use it even if Bing was the default.

danjoc 9y ago
>DDG is Bing That contradicts what I find on Wikipedia. DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources, including Yahoo! Search BOSS; Wikipedia; Wolfram Alpha; Bing; its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); and others. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate "Zero-click Info" boxes – grey boxes above the results that display topic summaries and related topics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Duck_Go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Duck_Go
- ars 9y ago
  That paragraph is out of date, for example Yahoo! Search BOSS was discontinued a year and a half ago. The DuckDuckBot is hardly seen. I suspect that they initially attempted to do this, but as far as I know these days it's basically Bing. Maybe with a small amount of other sources mixed in.
microcolonel 9y ago
DuckDuckGo standard results are based on Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex[0] combined, in my experience most of my results seem to come through Yandex. [0]: https://duck.co/help/results/sources https://duck.co/help/results/sources.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
subie 9y ago
Startpage is Google without user targeting. Apple switching to SP (or similar) would still return Google search results but severely hurt Google if SP really does as they say. I'd imagine legal ramifications for Apple but I do think Apple has options that keep Google paying billions.