6 ms·

Neeva: Ad-free, subscription-based search engine launches

63 points by mrry 5y ago

kilodeca 5y ago
Is this open source?
- bla3 5y ago
  No.
  - kilodeca 5y ago
    Then why the hell it exists?
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - masterfooo 5y ago
      Is Google search engine open-source?
vertis 5y ago
> Coming soon to your region! > Enter your email to join our waitlist, and we'll get in touch as soon as Neeva is available in your corner of the world. Not available unless you live in the US I guess
- dvh 5y ago
  I've seen this strategy in movie and music business and the only reason I can think of is that they don't actually want to sell the product. Their real income is from something else, like sub-licensing to third-parties, so that they don't have to handle end users which is labor intensive. Or maybe they just want to get bought.
  - denysvitali 5y ago
    I would say that, generally speaking, data regulation is another huge topic. Not sure if how much it applies here though, but considering they process payments and similar, they need to implement GDPR stuff for Europe
    - proxyforce 5y ago
      Hey guys, I work on Neeva and wanted to add some more context re: US only launch. We work with partners to provide localized data for results such as weather, sports, movies and more. We're working hard to get these partnerships in place beyond the US, and we expect to launch in Canada and Western Europe within a few quarters.
    - dekhn 5y ago
      you need to implement GDPR in the US too. https://gdpr.eu/compliance-checklist-us-companies/ https://gdpr.eu/compliance-checklist-us-companies/
      - denysvitali 5y ago
        If you don't handle data from the EU, nope
giancarlostoro 5y ago
Looks like it's a $5 a month search engine. This is something I've kind of wanted for ages, so I guess I'll sign up and see how it works. I secretly wish Mozilla the corporation would of made their own search engine with a subscription model ages ago. Mozilla corp / non-profit has a history somewhat similar to Google's where they seem to build things they phase out, and not do things to make themselve sustainable enough to not have to mass fire people who do a net good for the greater internet community that relies on them (thinking of MDN).
herlitzj 5y ago
Ads aren't the only problem. All the SEO clickbait is worse than the ads in my opinion. I can ignore the ads, but anymore a lot of the time the first page or two of results are just clickbait junk. Look at their example results. #3 looks like an SEO clickbait site to me. edit: Looks like you can customize results somewhat, so maybe that will help? A quick way to silence those kinds of hits would be nice.
- bun_at_work 5y ago
  I don't know enough about SEO/web crawlers, so this might be a silly question, but there is a way to identify SEO optimized websites, right? Isn't there a special file or something? Not sure if it'd be optimal, but dropping all search results with such optimization might bring a more broad search across the internet (more sites than just the common clickbait ones).
  - DenverCode 5y ago
    The vast majority of SEO optimization at this point is through backlinks, internal keywords, meta tags, links, headings, keyword usage, etc.
  - _manifold 5y ago
    Dropping SEO optimized results from a search is a bit of an oxymoronical idea. You'd essentially be punishing websites for simply ranking higher in search results which doesn't make sense.
- MiddleEndian 5y ago
  For those who have joined, I'm curious about the following query: Are women better than men at limbo? The results on Google[0] and Bing[1] are both entirely useless clickbait. I just want to know if women can bend back farther than men without falling over. 0. https://www.middleendian.com/limbogoogle.png https://www.middleendian.com/limbogoogle.png 1. https://www.middleendian.com/limbobing.png https://www.middleendian.com/limbobing.png
  - 5y ago
bigpumpkin 5y ago
Feels laggy compared to google.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bun_at_work 5y ago
This is super exciting. Every single "free" service that is supported by ad revenue should have a counterpart that is paid instead. I'm excited to try this, although I do tons of search from iOS, and want to know if this can be selected as the default search engine. It isn't clear from the FAQ.
- proxyforce 5y ago
  Apologies for the confusion. We have our own iOS browser app which you can try here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neeva-browser-search-engine/id1543288638 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neeva-browser-search-engine/id.... Also, we have instructions for setting Neeva as the default search on mobile Firefox and Chrome, along with a "workaround" for Safari: https://help.neeva.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500011550601-How-to-Set-Neeva-as-your-Default-Search-Engine-on-a-Mobile-Device https://help.neeva.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500011550601-How-t... (I'm an engineer working on Neeva)
browningstreet 5y ago
I was approved for their beta, but they wanted to install an extension. Then I tried their reveal today, need an account just to see. Maybe they’ll get the buzz they’re looking for, but I don’t trust their product management I’d this is how the test and launch.
Barrin92 5y ago
I'm a little bit skeptical about this notion that the ad model is fundamentally detrimental to the search results that Google gives you. It honestly doesn't even seem like it makes business sense. At the end of the day Google benefits from giving the most accurate results in the long term, and it's such a money printing engine I don't think they're degrading the search quality. Whenever I tried privacy-first or "non-ad" search engines, most recently duckduckgo, I found myself spamming !g a lot. It's nice to have an alternative obviously and I hope it's sustainable to have a paid search engine but it in some sense seems more like a lifestyle product to me.
merlinscholz 5y ago
Interesting that there is no mention of Brave Search here, a subscription-based search engine in public beta: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547158/brave-search-beta-browser-private-independent-index https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547158/brave-search-bet...
- aufhebung 5y ago
  Is Brave Search subscription based?
  - sfe22 5y ago
    Not yet but it was noted that it will soon be
rixed 5y ago
So the business model here seams to be to partner with content providers? Aren't ads a kind of partnership as well? Why should we expect this partnership not to bias the search results in a detrimental way (for the users) as ads do?

63 points by mrry 5y ago

kilodeca 5y ago

Is this open source?

bla3 5y ago
No.
- kilodeca 5y ago
  Then why the hell it exists?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - masterfooo 5y ago
    Is Google search engine open-source?

vertis 5y ago

> Coming soon to your region! > Enter your email to join our waitlist, and we'll get in touch as soon as Neeva is available in your corner of the world. Not available unless you live in the US I guess

dvh 5y ago
I've seen this strategy in movie and music business and the only reason I can think of is that they don't actually want to sell the product. Their real income is from something else, like sub-licensing to third-parties, so that they don't have to handle end users which is labor intensive. Or maybe they just want to get bought.
- denysvitali 5y ago
  I would say that, generally speaking, data regulation is another huge topic. Not sure if how much it applies here though, but considering they process payments and similar, they need to implement GDPR stuff for Europe
  - proxyforce 5y ago
    Hey guys, I work on Neeva and wanted to add some more context re: US only launch. We work with partners to provide localized data for results such as weather, sports, movies and more. We're working hard to get these partnerships in place beyond the US, and we expect to launch in Canada and Western Europe within a few quarters.
  - dekhn 5y ago
    you need to implement GDPR in the US too. https://gdpr.eu/compliance-checklist-us-companies/ https://gdpr.eu/compliance-checklist-us-companies/
    - denysvitali 5y ago
      If you don't handle data from the EU, nope

giancarlostoro 5y ago

Looks like it's a $5 a month search engine. This is something I've kind of wanted for ages, so I guess I'll sign up and see how it works. I secretly wish Mozilla the corporation would of made their own search engine with a subscription model ages ago. Mozilla corp / non-profit has a history somewhat similar to Google's where they seem to build things they phase out, and not do things to make themselve sustainable enough to not have to mass fire people who do a net good for the greater internet community that relies on them (thinking of MDN).

herlitzj 5y ago

Ads aren't the only problem. All the SEO clickbait is worse than the ads in my opinion. I can ignore the ads, but anymore a lot of the time the first page or two of results are just clickbait junk. Look at their example results. #3 looks like an SEO clickbait site to me. edit: Looks like you can customize results somewhat, so maybe that will help? A quick way to silence those kinds of hits would be nice.

bun_at_work 5y ago
I don't know enough about SEO/web crawlers, so this might be a silly question, but there is a way to identify SEO optimized websites, right? Isn't there a special file or something? Not sure if it'd be optimal, but dropping all search results with such optimization might bring a more broad search across the internet (more sites than just the common clickbait ones).
- DenverCode 5y ago
  The vast majority of SEO optimization at this point is through backlinks, internal keywords, meta tags, links, headings, keyword usage, etc.
- _manifold 5y ago
  Dropping SEO optimized results from a search is a bit of an oxymoronical idea. You'd essentially be punishing websites for simply ranking higher in search results which doesn't make sense.
MiddleEndian 5y ago
For those who have joined, I'm curious about the following query: Are women better than men at limbo? The results on Google[0] and Bing[1] are both entirely useless clickbait. I just want to know if women can bend back farther than men without falling over. 0. https://www.middleendian.com/limbogoogle.png https://www.middleendian.com/limbogoogle.png 1. https://www.middleendian.com/limbobing.png https://www.middleendian.com/limbobing.png
- 5y ago

bigpumpkin 5y ago

Feels laggy compared to google.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bun_at_work 5y ago

This is super exciting. Every single "free" service that is supported by ad revenue should have a counterpart that is paid instead. I'm excited to try this, although I do tons of search from iOS, and want to know if this can be selected as the default search engine. It isn't clear from the FAQ.

proxyforce 5y ago
Apologies for the confusion. We have our own iOS browser app which you can try here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neeva-browser-search-engine/id1543288638 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neeva-browser-search-engine/id.... Also, we have instructions for setting Neeva as the default search on mobile Firefox and Chrome, along with a "workaround" for Safari: https://help.neeva.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500011550601-How-to-Set-Neeva-as-your-Default-Search-Engine-on-a-Mobile-Device https://help.neeva.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500011550601-How-t... (I'm an engineer working on Neeva)

browningstreet 5y ago

I was approved for their beta, but they wanted to install an extension. Then I tried their reveal today, need an account just to see. Maybe they’ll get the buzz they’re looking for, but I don’t trust their product management I’d this is how the test and launch.

Barrin92 5y ago

I'm a little bit skeptical about this notion that the ad model is fundamentally detrimental to the search results that Google gives you. It honestly doesn't even seem like it makes business sense. At the end of the day Google benefits from giving the most accurate results in the long term, and it's such a money printing engine I don't think they're degrading the search quality. Whenever I tried privacy-first or "non-ad" search engines, most recently duckduckgo, I found myself spamming !g a lot. It's nice to have an alternative obviously and I hope it's sustainable to have a paid search engine but it in some sense seems more like a lifestyle product to me.

merlinscholz 5y ago

Interesting that there is no mention of Brave Search here, a subscription-based search engine in public beta: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547158/brave-search-beta-browser-private-independent-index https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547158/brave-search-bet...

aufhebung 5y ago
Is Brave Search subscription based?
- sfe22 5y ago
  Not yet but it was noted that it will soon be

rixed 5y ago

So the business model here seams to be to partner with content providers? Aren't ads a kind of partnership as well? Why should we expect this partnership not to bias the search results in a detrimental way (for the users) as ads do?