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🏠 TECH
The Apple Search Engine
Google spends an unfathomable amount of money to have Google Search as the default search engine on Apple’s devices. We’re talking up to $20B a year in straight payments and up to $8B a year in commissions from Search’s advertising empire.
That’s tens of billions of dollars that go straight into Apple’s pockets, and they don’t have to lift a finger to get it. It’s basically legalized money printing.
But what if there was an even better option? What if they could ditch Google completely and run their own search engine?
It sounds out of left field, but resident Apple expert Mark Gurman says it may be closer to reality than you think. After all, Apple has been messing around with search engine technology for years now:
They have their own search engine for the App Store, Maps, Apple TV, and News.
They’ve developed a next-gen internal search engine under the codename Pegasus.
Spotlight is already basically a baby search engine.
They have their own in-house advertising technology team.
They acquired the AI-powered search engine Laserlike in 2019.
And not only do they have the technology, but they have the motive as well. An Apple Search Engine could immediately become an Apple Watch-sized revenue stream (~$14B to $18B). That’s not quite as much as Apple’s current deal with Google, but it’d likely be a hell of a lot more than any Google deal if Search is found to be a monopoly.
Please, God, bring us the Apple Search Engine and AppleGPT expeditiously.
The Big Picture: An Apple search engine would fit Apple’s MO of technological self-reliance.
🤝 THE LATEST IN…
TECH
Early adopters rejoice, Apple is making sure the iPhone 15 doesn’t melt your hand off.
Nvidia’s offices were raided by the antitrust authorities in France.
Apparently Google’s search advertising is as good a business as cigarettes and drugs.
Netflix is officially out of the DVD business.
AI
Meta’s new Llama 2 Long model beats GPT-3.5 Turbo and Claude 2 on prompts that require a lot of words.
The Pixel 8 is going to have a whole host of AI features.
AI might be a huge platform shift.
The NSA is starting an AI security center.
SCIENCE
They haven’t given up hope on LK-99 yet.
This robotic exoskeleton can turn you into a sprinter.
Tire dust seems to be the culprit behind aquatic microplastics.
Who needs shots and pills when you have your cheeks?
CRYPTO
VanEck is donating 10% of its profits to the protocol guild.
The SEC just continues to delay bitcoin ETF applications.
Su Zhu caught a jail sentence.
Vitalik dropped a banger.
🏃♀️ QUICKIES
Raise: Laverock Therapeutics raised £13.5M in seed funding to develop a gene splicing platform.
Stat: $20M: How much Twitter X has paid out to creators so far.
Rabbit hole: The Mobile Revolution vs. The AI Revolution (Digital Native)
🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION
No video today, but got an inspiring success story for you all.
🧠 POLL
I tend to agree with the results of last week’s poll:
But let’s see if I agree with your thoughts on this one:
Will Google Search be ruled a monopoly? |
🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER
The best resources we came across this weekend that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.
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📝 Ditch the forms for AI agents with Semiform.
🤝 Colors uses AI to unlock growth via customer feedback.
💉 DOPAMINE HIT
Absolutely insane.
@lynchmd Never seen anything like this. #sphere
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