Thought experiment.
Yesterday I tweeted lamenting the fact that a report shows we now search more within Apps than Google/Web Search...
Well....
- Notice that on iOS 'Search' is branded 'Spotlight Search'.
- Notice the new 'Continuity' Features on iOS 8 and OSX Yosemite that involve lots of cross iOS/OSX interactions
- Notice the SMS Syncing between iMessage and Desktop
- Notice deep spotlight search on the OSX - showing content within an App in the search results (like recent documents etc)
- Apple has clearly shown they want to disintermediate Google by turning every search box on an Apple device (iOS or OSX alike) into a branded search experience "Spotlight" that a) they control b) mixes both web and native/app content.
Imagine taking this further in a series of incremental steps that would eventually lead the app developer community along towards a powerful end goal...
- Introduce 'Deep App Search' on iOS. An API that App Developers can use to allow spotlight to index their contents so they can appear in iOS search results and/or Siri or more often
- Introduce 'Continuity' for Search Results... When I get a result on OSX Spotlight, why can't I 'launch' it on my iOS Device and vice versa.
- Introduce Search Sync so that OSX Spotlight can return results from my iOS devices/Apps (and vice versa). Content that can only be seen on my phone will only allow that option in the search results
- All of this would presumably be via iCloud...
- Apple could provide a WEB Interface to all this.. say at Spotlight.com
- BOOM! Apple would now have a differentiated Web Search Interface that rivals Google using...
- A well known search brand (Spotlight)
- Bing for Web (at least until they decided to build their own)
- Deep/personalized results from your iOS app data. They might even be able to reach into FB if FB played along with the FB iOS App.