Some analyst predicts that Apple will build its own search engine and the soundbite feeds the blogging community for a week!

We’re also going to jump in–hey we have bills to pay too–but our take is a little different. First the prediction:

We believe Apple could utilize data unavailable to Google, data generated by the company’s App Store, to create a mobile centric search engine, which would be a unique offering to Google’s search engine…We believe the odds of Apple developing a search engine in the next five years are 70%…

<rolls up sleeves>

OK, first of all. Just because someone says "search engine" you shouldn’t immediately think of a web search engine such as Google.

Second. It’s quite plausible for Apple to build a search engine for the thousands of iPhone/iPad apps in iTunes. Heck, I don’t think it’s going to take 5 years–maybe as little as 5 months!

Lastly, Apple already has an abundance of search engine technology. If you own a Mac, you’re familiar with the power Spotlight search, right? Use iTunes? There’s a search engine baked into that. Heck, just head to Apple’s support site and you’ll find a pretty cool search engine.

Still, predicting something that Apple already has doesn’t get you talked about by bloggers. Leaving it up to interpretation–that’s where the money is!