[wvenable]

It's really a stretch to believe that Siri is how Apple is going to compete with Google and Microsoft on search -- Apple doesn't do search! Siri calls out to existing search services from Google and Wolfram Alpha to do the actual work.

Apple isn't good at services; iCloud may be the most satisfactory result after a long list of so-so and downright terrible attempts. There's no technology here that either Google or Microsoft couldn't do better.

[Steko]

"Apple doesn't do search!"

They really didn't do AI until a few weeks ago either. And they didn't do music until they did music. Would you really be shocked if one of the headlines tomorrow morning was that Duck Duck Go was acquired by Apple?

[wvenable]

If they bought Duck Duck Go, that would be something. But we're not talking about that, we're talking about Siri. A product with a relatively small scope that the punditry is blowing out of proportion. This is the very same media that insisted we'd see an iPhone 5. There's no substance here -- it's all baseless wishful thinking.

[gujk]

If DDG went mainstream it would probably hit the paid tier for the Google API that generates most of its quality content.

[epi0Bauqu]

We don't use any Google APIs.

[Tichy]

But Bing I think? Would DDG work standalone?

[minikomi]

How about storing the most common successful searches by the user base for certain phrases, then skipping the search path once over a certain threshold?