Apple confirmed that it is having a web crawler Applebot indicating its possible future in the search business. Apple recently added the page to its support site giving details about its first Web Crawler.
These rumors regarding an Apple search engine starting spreading when webmasters noticed web crawlers visiting their websites with IP addresses beginning with 17. It was surprising because the IP address block starting with 17 is wholly owned by Apple.
Whereas the iPhone maker has said that this web crawler is used by the Siri and Spotlight development teams to improve the search results. Now the company has published a help document confirming the existence of the Applebot – Apple’s web crawler.
The search engine rumor was also fuelled a few weeks ago when a job vacancy (now removed) was found on the web. The job vacancy was regarding a search manager to work on a “search platform supporting hundreds of millions of users” and “play a part in revolutionizing how people use their computers and mobile devices.”
Apple’s deal to use Google as the default search engine on iOS is going to expire soon, and this could be a perfect time.
By: Adarsh Verma, Fossbytes.com