Apple search crawler activity could signal a Google competitor, or a bid to make Siri a one-stop-shop - TechCrunch

Encouraged by the spate of antitrust activity brewing in both the Justice Department and on Capitol Hill, Apple may be developing a search competitor to Google, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Any development of a search tool would be a third way for Apple to capture search, which now uses Google as its default search service thanks to a lucrative contract between the two (one that’s also at the heart of a Justice Department inquiry into Google’s purported anti-competitive activities around search).

While the story about Apple getting into direct competition with Google on search makes for a great headline, the uptick in activity could be explained equally as rationally by Siri getting more search queries and being more of an interlocutor between Apple and search services like Google or Microsoft’s Bing.

Making Siri a one-stop shop could inoculate Apple in the scenario where they are forced to enable a search provider choice in the iOS onboarding flow by regulation.

Perhaps another reason why making Siri the search equivalent of an overtalker is the strong play for Apple