DOES ANYONE ELSE MISS ASK JEEVES?

ISO: Google’s Competition

With the Google antitrust case looming, Apple likely must make a choice the magnitude of which hasn’t been seen since S2E5 of Grey’s Anatomy: Does it fight for its lucrative search relationship with Google, or ride solo? 

Sorry, romantics: For now, all signs—and iPhone system updates—point to the latter, reports the FT. 

Upside-and-seek 

If you’re an iPhone user (cough, everyone except Ryan), try typing a search query onto your home screen. With the newest iOS 14 update, you should see Apple-sourced search results display instead of Google’s—plus direct website links and query auto-complete suggestions. 

Along with default browser control on its own devices and ~$55 billion in annual net income, Apple’s got a lot going for it as a potential search player:

• John Giannandrea, Google’s former chief of search, who joined Apple in 2018 to head up AI and ML strategy 
• Hiring search engineers with experience “configuring, scaling, and troubleshooting search infrastructure” 
• Applebot, its in-house web crawler, which discovers info for search indexing—and has been especially busy recently 

On the other hand...

Building a competitive search engine requires tens of billions of indexed webpages and large-scale behavior data, plus lots of willing users. And it can be tough to win consumer loyalty. 

• Exhibit A: Microsoft Bing's most notable cultural moments have come from hamfisted product placements (Gossip Girl, TVD, Hawaii Five-0...) rather than data-driven utility. 

There's also the issue of monetization. Google Search makes its $$$ through advertising. Apple has had an App Store-focused search advertising biz since 2016, but monetizing a traditional engine would require a big expansion of that...and likely some compromises on the data privacy issues Apple claims to hold so dear. 

Looking ahead: Apple’s capacity for data collection and web indexing makes it a rare potential competitor, but when it comes to traditional search engines, Google’s still decades ahead. 

Apple will likely fold its search tech advancements into Siri instead, in hopes of making the voice assistant a viable default search tool for iPhone users. 

DIGITAL CURRENCY

CBDC (Temporarily) Overtakes SPAC as Hottest 4-Letter Term

China is scaling the digital yuan pilot phase. The U.S. hasn’t sussed out a strategy for central bank digital currencies (CBDC). 

But a pair of smaller economies, not unlike the Autobots, are ready to roll out. After a long pilot period, the National Bank of Cambodia launched its blockchain-based Bakong system yesterday. 

• Access: anyone with a phone number in Cambodia 
• Distribution: Via partner banks 
• Purpose: Payments 

Let’s jetset across the prime meridian

The Bahamas narrowly beat Cambodia for the rights to “world’s first CBDC available to all citizens.” Ten days ago, the Central Bank of the Bahamas launched the Sand Dollar, a stablecoin pegged to the Bahamian dollar, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. 

The upshot: For emerging economies, CBDCs can expand financial services to underbanked populations with high rates of smartphone penetration. At a macro scale, CBDCs could expedite interbank payments and give central banks more control over a country’s circulation. That could also mean more inflation and surveillance.

SPONSORED BY DOCUSIGN

Is Selling Digitally Going Smoothly?

Here at the Brew, our sales team has moved from in-person meet-and-greets to 50 Zoom calls a day. And it isn’t always easy to build a relationship without personal interaction (or a free lunch).

So we put together an article with the digital masterminds at DocuSign to discuss how our team uses DocuSign’s tech to sell efficiently when things continue to change every. single. day.

Featuring our very own Brand Partner (and fun fact: DJ), Jenna Castaldo, we’re getting the low-down on how she creates meaningful relationships that drive revenue. 

So if our brave new digital world has made you yearn for the sales calls of old, take a read of our article with DocuSign. It’ll teach you the ways of automated contracts, eSignatures, and countersigns with incredible speed. 

Check out our article with DocuSign right here.

CONNECTIVITY

Puerto Rico; Mexico; oh, the Places You'll Go

Far, far away from the polychromatic landscapes of Dr. Seussdom, Loon is on the journey of its lifetime. 

Alphabet’s internet balloon subsidiary has claimed a new stratospheric flight record. Its balloon stayed aloft for 312 days, besting Loon’s prior PR by 89 days. 

• Flight path: Launch from Puerto Rico -> head south to Peru -> casually circumnavigate the globe -> land in Baja, Mexico 
• Fleet: Almost 100 flight systems are in the air worldwide
• Function: Beaming internet connectivity to rural, remote, and underserved areas, but also considering other use cases in the stratosphere 

Bottom line

Loon has seven years of hard-won engineering, materials science, and telemetry achievements under its belt. But ultimately, Alphabet expects “Other Bets” to contribute to the bottom line.

Monetization is on the radar: Loon launched its first commercial service with Telkom Kenya In July. Prospective Loon customers are carefully watching the Kenyan operations. 

+ While we’re here: "Other Bets" posted a Q3 operating loss of $1.1 billion and revenues of $178 million, Alphabet said yesterday. 

SPONSORED BY RINGCENTRAL

Connecting women leaders for a great cause. The inaugural episode of RingCentral Connect Online on Transcending Barriers and Creating Breakthroughs is November 10th at 1pm est. Featuring speakers like Best Selling Author and Entrepreneur Judi Holler, Consultant/CEO and former NBA exec Pam El, SF 49ers coach Katie Sowers, and more, this discussion on women making a difference in IT is not to be missed. Plus, for every registration received, RingCentral will donate $25 (up to $10,000) to Women In Technology. Sign up here.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Someone moved ~$1.15 billion in Bitcoin this week—the largest dollar-value Bitcoin exchange ever recorded. The transaction fee? $3.58. 

Quote: “I think I’m going down a dark path here. I think AI is great. I just feel like, creatively, I think AI can replace humans. And so I think at some point, we will want to, as a species, have a discussion about how involved AI will be in art.”—Grimes, chatting with the NYT. 

FYI: Morning Brew has been acquired. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Big Tech’s earnings recap 
• Apple is souring on its relationship with Foxconn, The Information reports. 
• The Mayo Clinic and Google are launching an AI tool to guide targeting in cancer radiotherapy treatment.
• Consumer Reports scored Tesla’s Autopilot a “distant second” to Cadillac’s Super Cruise. 
• More semis consolidation: Chipmaker Marvell will buy rival Inphi in a $10 billion deal, the WSJ reports. 
• Bitcoin is approaching its highest level since the crypto bubble burst in 2018, with a near-30% surge this month.
• Daimler and Waymo are teaming up on electric self-driving semi trucks. 

GOING PHISHING

Four of the following news stories are true, and one...we made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. The terms of services for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service state that no-Earth based governments have authority over activity on Mars. 
2. WeWork allegedly had a 12-person team working on self-driving chairs. 
3. Leaning into the meme, Microsoft built an Xbox Series X fridge and gifted it to Snoop Dogg. 
4. A conference attendee waited eight hours in a VR headset for a virtual event to begin.
5. Hackers say they found a way to bypass the required Facebook login on the Oculus Quest 2. 

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For Fido x FAA crossover content: A dog flies a drone. The promo video is a bit gimmicky, but we couldn’t not include it. 

For horror buffs: MIT’s “Nightmare Machine” deep learning algorithms generate images of haunted faces and places. If you dare, cast your vote to help teach the AI what’s scary. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• China’s new five-year plan 
• How Google Assistant learns slang
• Automation and the future of work 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

A conference attendee didn't spend eight hours in a VR headset waiting for an event to begin.