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Show HN: I'm building a non-profit search engine (github.com)

441 points by daoudc · 1728 days ago · 199 comments on HN

Article summary

The article introduces Mwmbl, a non-profit, open-source search engine that aims to provide a replacement for commercial search engines like Google and Bing. The search engine is designed to be community-driven, with a distributed crawling system and a ranking algorithm that can be influenced by user feedback. The project is currently in development, and the creator is seeking contributions and donations to support its growth. The search engine's goal is to provide a better user experience by prioritizing search results over ad revenue.

Main themes

  • non-profit search engine
  • community-driven search
  • decentralized search
  • search engine ranking algorithms
  • user privacy
  • alternative funding models
  • search engine development challenges

What commenters say

  • A non-profit search engine can provide a better user experience by prioritizing search results over ad revenue.
  • The size of the web is too large for a new search engine to catch up with existing ones like Google and Bing.
  • A decentralized, community-driven approach to search engines can be a viable alternative to traditional models.
  • Indexing the entire web may not be necessary, and focusing on the most useful parts of it could be a more feasible goal.
  • A search engine that allows users to customize their search results and filter out unwanted content could be more effective than traditional search engines.
  • Donations may not be enough to sustain a non-profit search engine, and alternative funding models should be explored.
  • A search engine that prioritizes user privacy and does not track user data could be a major selling point for users who value their online privacy.
  • The technical challenges of building a search engine, such as indexing and ranking, can be overcome with a well-designed system and sufficient resources.