An analyst with investment firm Piper Jaffray says that there is a 70 percent chance that Apple will release its own search engine to compete with Google and Bing within the next five years,making for further complications in the futuresearch engine optimization(SEO) market.

According to eWeek’s Clint Boulton, "as the search provider for the iPhone, Google also sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones. This competitive advantage has not gone unnoticed by Apple."

While the mobile market could well be the primary catalyst behind Apple’s rumored move, its primary difficulty will be a programming one, writes TechTremor. Creating a search engine is a massively difficult endeavor, but the company’s extensive resources and increasingly strong urge to compete with Google could push it into just such an attempt.

While the world of search engine optimization (SEO) could be seeing a new competitor emerge, SEO professionals are already bracing for the disappearance of an old one: Yahoo will soon be taken over by Bing.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.