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I actually think its better than Google Maps now. Seems like google is following apple maps new features (e.g. stop signs everywhere).

Well the thinking by google has surely been that Apple Search (iSearch?) would be competitive if Apple percieved it would be in their interest to build it / work with another partner. It's not impossible that someone else would build a good / better tool. Since all these tools also significantly improve with use and feedback, switching the default would probably have a massive impact

As of right now, Bing is also competitive with Google.

It didn’t start that way though. It took a lot of time and money; version 1 was terrible by most accounts.

That being said Apple is a company with enough cash and time to throw at Search. People also said that it would be hard to break Google’s dominance of maps.

I guess that's why Apple's being called to witness - Google also throws a significant amount of cash at Apple over search, and Apple has not developed a search engine.