@varx @human_equivalent @dynamic I thought there were effective search engines before Google; I was happy with Alta Vista. My choices in browsers were limited, being an OS/2 user, and search engines are driven by browser inclusion.
@dynamic @varx @human_equivalent I think we are at a point now of ineffective search engines. An effective search engine should be company agnostic, non-tracking, open, relevant (topical and up to date), and thorough (all results). Unfortunately, users are stuck with Google and Bing. Both fail the company agnostic, non-tracking, open, and relevant aspects. Aggregators can fight the non-tracking, but all the other flaws exist. Open source search is badly needed.
@lwriemen @varx @human_equivalent
I've been wondering about open source search engines too. I don't know much about what the barriers are to making that a thing, but I agree that it would be very desirable.
@lwriemen @varx @human_equivalent
Are peer-to-peer web search engines a good idea? I'm interested to hear any thoughts.
I just did an internet search for open source search engines, and turned up some sort of peer-to-peer application called YaCy: https://opensource.com/article/20/2/open-source-search-engine
Anyone know anything about it?
@dynamic @varx @human_equivalent The MetaGer website also has links to some open source search work, IIRC.
@lwriemen @varx @human_equivalent
Even if there were effective search engines (and I honestly can't remember how well they functioned; I think I used Yahoo!... Yahoo! did have search engine, didn't it?), there definitely was an aura of prestige around Google. Like they *told* us they worked better, and whether it was true or not, people seemed to believe it.