Spotlight

Multiple developers have seen increased activity from Apple's web crawler Applebot in their website logs recently, reigniting speculation that Apple could be planning to launch a full-fledged search engine eventually. However, it's more likely that any possible uptick relates to Apple's efforts to improve Siri and Spotlight search results. Jon Henshaw, founder of digital marketing insights...

Starting today, Apple search results from Siri and Spotlight on Mac and iOS will be provided by Google rather than Microsoft's Bing. Apple announced the news in a statement that was given to TechCrunch this morning, claiming consistency across iOS and Mac devices is the reason behind the switch. "Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac...

Apple this month has expanded Spotlight Suggestions to seven additional regions for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models running iOS 9 or later. The localized feature is now supported in Hong Kong, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Spotlight Suggestions, such as popular contacts, frequently opened apps, nearby amenities, and local...

Apple today updated its iOS 9 feature availability page to note the expansion of several iOS features to new countries. Apple's Flyover feature for Apple Maps has expanded to encompass Akron, Ohio and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, allowing Maps users to see photorealistic 3D views of the areas, with tools for zooming, panning, and rotating to get a closer look at notable landmarks and points of...

BBC's iPlayer app has been updated for iOS users in the UK today, bringing added support for Spotlight search and Apple's Handoff feature. Users of the app can now directly search for TV programs from their home screen by activating Spotlight search with a swipe down gesture, while the addition of Handoff support enables viewers to pick up where they left off when switching to another iOS...

Apple may be looking to further beef up its search platform "Spotlight" for iOS and OS X with deeper integration of Tweets and Twitter accounts, according to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (via Macworld). Spotlight already provides some Twitter search options, letting users place an "@" symbol ahead of a name to search for an account or a "#" to search for popular hashtags on the service. Users can...

A privacy glitch in Spotlight search for OS X may leak private details, including IP addresses, to email spammers. The flaw was first reported by German tech news site Heise and replicated in tests performed by IDG News Service. The issue affects OS X mail users who have followed conventional security recommendations to turn off the "load remote content in messages" option in the Mail app....