Apple recently confirmed that it has its own web crawler called \u201cApplebot\u201d that scours the Web for search results when a user queries Siri or Spotlight. Developers had first noticed Applebot as early as last November, but the company hadn\u2019t discussed it publicly. Recently, however, Apple published details on what Applebot is, and what it\u2019s used for.<\/p>\n
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\u201cApplebot is the web crawler for Apple, used by products including Siri and Spotlight Suggestions,\u201d the company said. According to\u00a0MacRumors<\/em>, this signifies that Apple may be trying to compete in search with Bing and Google, which it has used in the past to power the search results culled by Siri and Spotlight.<\/p>\n Apple hasn\u2019t ever confirmed plans to enter the search market, however, and Applebot doesn\u2019t necessarily change that. The company still relies on Googlebot for some executions, for example, and it told developers to look for Googlebot support where Applebot isn\u2019t recognized.<\/p>\n Google and Apple are still working out a new search deal. According to a report from\u00a0CNBC<\/em>\u00a0last month, the current partnership is set to expire soon, and Apple may turn to a competitor such as Bing or Yahoo to power results. A job listing in February suggested Apple wants to create its own \u201cApple Search\u201d engine, however, and Applebot might just be a sign that it won\u2019t need partners in the future.<\/p>\n