“Steve Jobs was livid when he learned about Google plans to use the Android operating system which Google acquired to compete with the iPhone. He felt betrayed by Eric Schmidt, the then CEO of Google who also happened to be a member of the Apple Board. Schmidt joined the board of Apple in 2005 and left (or, was asked to leave) in 2009. Jobs began to realize that Google could become the next Microsoft which would have the same effect that the old Microsoft had on the pre-iPhone Apple, it would cut the company off at the knees. Jobs realized that the only way to prevent that, was to put a dagger into the very heart of Google – Search,” Avram Miller writes for Two Thirds Done. “So he started up the most secret project ever undertaken at Apple. The name of the project was ‘Found.’ Less than four people knew about Found and not one of them was a board member. Jobs understood that Search was a very vulnerable area that had no stickiness other than possibly the brand behind it. That when users did a search, they just wanted the best results.”
“Yes, Google built up an amazing advertising business around Search. But advertisers would always go where the ‘audience’ went,” Miller writes. “It was not important to Apple to monitize Search, what was important was for Apple to disable the Google money machine to defend its franchise.”
“On his death bed, or close to it, he made Tim Cook, the current CEO, promise to keep project Found going. By the summer of 2014, it was clear that the new search capability developed by Apple would revolutionize search. Apple began to get ready for the launch. They wanted a way to make sure that millions of people could use the new search capability on the day of the launch,” Miller writes. “This required that a few more people be brought into the fold so that Found could be rolled out in releases iOS, OS X and iTunes. Of course, it was hard to keep such a project secret up to the announcement but Apple did it’s best. It provided a lot of cover. Many false stories were leaked with most focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence within Siri. While these stories were not far from the truth, they lacked a few key elements – all of which were finally revealed publicly by Steve Jobs at a major event in Sept. 2015. Yes, I said Steve Jobs. This effort was so important to him that he pre-recorded the announcement before his death and instructed Tim Cook to use it.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: I, Cringely. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mtnmnn” for the heads up.]