5 ms·

It's in Google's best interest to keep the price high... it raises the price for any potential competitor who might try to outbid them. Google knows how much m

It's in Google's best interest to keep the price high... it raises the price for any potential competitor who might try to outbid them. Google knows how much money it makes through iPhone... a potential competitor could only guess how much money could be made by being the new default search engine (especially since the number of people who would be loyal to Google and switch away from the new default is a big unknown). It's interesting to see exactly how valuable it is (or how valuable people think it is) to be the market leader. If Google lost the iPhone default position, their customers (i.e. advertisers) would see them differently.

gist 9y ago
> Google knows how much money it makes through iPhone Doesn't always even matter. It's branding and advertising for google. Same type of thing as a company spending $5m on Superbowl ads. Idea isn't to ring up sales (or in the case of google clicks). Goodyear has the blimp nobody is buying tires directly my point being there is a value to the indirect advertising and marketing.
elihu 9y ago
It's also a disincentive for Apple to make their own search engine.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  This really doesn't seem like something Apple would do. It's not in their DNA, would be very tough to do while keeping their pro-privacy stance, and isn't how they like to make money. I'd be very disappointed if they went down this road.
  - elihu 9y ago
    I doubt that creating a new competitive search engine is quite as hard as Google would like us to believe. Whether it's something Apple would do, I don't have an opinion; in general I don't pay much attention to Apple. They could conceivably setup a search engine as a pro-privacy move by deliberately not collecting/monetizing user's search data, and perhaps not even running ads at all if they can figure out some other way to pay for it or justify the expense. However, I agree with you that it feels wrong. I think I'd feel better about a new search engine if it was run by a less profit-driven institution, like the Internet Archive. Maybe the best course of action if Apple wanted a Google alternative to exist is to develop some of the technology in-house and then give a giant grant to some well-respected pro-privacy organization to actually run the thing.
    - sumedh 9y ago
      > I doubt that creating a new competitive search engine is quite as hard as Google would like us to believe. MS, Yahoo and many others would disagree.
  - cakedoggie 9y ago
    They have to be doing it. They can't rely on another company for something so important. Just as Samsung is also doing it, and doing maps, and doing their own OS. It is stupid to become reliant on Google. Even though their solution would not be as good, they need to have something in case Google cuts them off.
    - ryanwaggoner 9y ago
      Bing? You don't have to own every single piece of the tech landscape to stay in business.

gist 9y ago

> Google knows how much money it makes through iPhone Doesn't always even matter. It's branding and advertising for google. Same type of thing as a company spending $5m on Superbowl ads. Idea isn't to ring up sales (or in the case of google clicks). Goodyear has the blimp nobody is buying tires directly my point being there is a value to the indirect advertising and marketing.

elihu 9y ago

It's also a disincentive for Apple to make their own search engine.

ryanwaggoner 9y ago
This really doesn't seem like something Apple would do. It's not in their DNA, would be very tough to do while keeping their pro-privacy stance, and isn't how they like to make money. I'd be very disappointed if they went down this road.
- elihu 9y ago
  I doubt that creating a new competitive search engine is quite as hard as Google would like us to believe. Whether it's something Apple would do, I don't have an opinion; in general I don't pay much attention to Apple. They could conceivably setup a search engine as a pro-privacy move by deliberately not collecting/monetizing user's search data, and perhaps not even running ads at all if they can figure out some other way to pay for it or justify the expense. However, I agree with you that it feels wrong. I think I'd feel better about a new search engine if it was run by a less profit-driven institution, like the Internet Archive. Maybe the best course of action if Apple wanted a Google alternative to exist is to develop some of the technology in-house and then give a giant grant to some well-respected pro-privacy organization to actually run the thing.
  - sumedh 9y ago
    > I doubt that creating a new competitive search engine is quite as hard as Google would like us to believe. MS, Yahoo and many others would disagree.
- cakedoggie 9y ago
  They have to be doing it. They can't rely on another company for something so important. Just as Samsung is also doing it, and doing maps, and doing their own OS. It is stupid to become reliant on Google. Even though their solution would not be as good, they need to have something in case Google cuts them off.
  - ryanwaggoner 9y ago
    Bing? You don't have to own every single piece of the tech landscape to stay in business.