"Siri suggested websites" (the thing I mentioned in my first post) are not from other search engines, they're from Apple's.
Same goes for the "Siri suggested website" when you type some terms into Safari. The top website on the autocomplete list is selected by Apple's search engine.
Ah, my apologies for the misunderstanding. I was not aware of this. My point still stands, since relatively few people treat Spotlight as a discrete search engine. Its layout and features are not conducive to anything but the most elementary research. Moreover, it is not accessible through web browsers.
Yeah, my post was definitely intended in a sort of "it's crazy but it's true" way, because yeah, Apple has gone through insane amounts of engineering effort to create a working search engine that crawls the entire web and does a decent job of selecting top websites, but you can't use it anywhere except in a few chosen UI elements inside iOS/macOS. The whole thing is hidden in plain sight.
The fact that they went through all that trouble makes me even more convinced that they're considering a bigger entry into search. They're dipping their toes in the water.
