Apple purchasing other companies is nothing new, as we reported yesterday about their purchase of chip-maker Intrinsity for $121 million. However, the news that they have now purchased virtual personal assistant iPhone app Siri, has many speculating that Apple is trying to get into search in one way or another.

While the purchase was just a rumor after a tweet from Robert Scoble, it has now been confirmed by Business Insider. The question is, what does Apple plan to do with the Siri technology?

For those of you that are unaware, while Siri is dubbed a “virtual personally assistant”, it is essentially just a voice activated search engine. For example, you could ask Siri (with your voice) to find a romantic restaurant and it will essentially give you typical search results, albeit in an innovative way. This is the reason that many are wondering how Apple will implement the Siri search technology into their future iDevices.

With Apple having already having investments in a mapping company and now Siri, could they be planning their own native apps to replace Google on the iPhone/iPad?

While many people don’t consider Siri to be search technology necessarily, look what John Battelle of SearchEngine Land certainly doesn’t agree, “One of the poster child apps that’s shaking up the current status quo is Siri, an iPhone app that offers a personal digital assistant that’s really a voice activated meta-search tool. Battelle offered Siri up as an example of a different type of search experience.”

[via 9to5mac]