7 ms·

Is there any point in launching a search engine in 2021? Marc Benioff thinks so

44 points by danso 5y ago

new_guy 5y ago
> Both DuckDuckGo and You.com partner with Bing on some search results. > It also announced a $20 million seed funding round led by Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures. Breyer Capital, Sound Ventures and Day One Ventures also participated in the funding round How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/bing-web-search-api https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/bing-web-search-ap... ) It doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even an afternoons project.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  > How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? How much do you think the fair price on the domain "you.com" is? That's probably the bulk of your $20 million right there. I have to imagine that's prime domain-name real-estate.
  - laurent123456 5y ago
    First line if the article: > CEO Marc Benioff has been holding onto the "you.com" domain name since 1996 So it cost them nothing.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      It cost Marc Benioff nothing. But what's the fair price to offer the Venture Capitalists for a shot at owning the you.com domain name? If you own 10% of the company, you own 10% of the company's assets (including you.com). --------------- As you can see, selling equity and retaining control of you.com is the obviously best move. Even if this search-engine thing doesn't work out, the domain name will be activated and used for something, driving more traffic and building a brand.
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  > How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? Its not a 20m payment for what you did, its 20m to help you do what plan. You see "20m for tapping into bing" they see "20m for a new business plan that will make >>20m by tapping into a massive market, and leveraging existing companies effort to not re-invent the wheel"
- Barrin92 5y ago
  in this case? You work at Salesforce. An absolutely astounding amount of access to funding is and always has been personal connections.
- rafaelturk 5y ago
  Tapping into Bings Apis looks like a good plan to get started..
- anonymouse008 5y ago
  > How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? Eh, it marginally boosts Bings revenue, average daily usage, engagement, etc... and shows some type of new sector growth. So go long in MSFT before earnings or push big press releases on this whole new way to monetize search, and you're in a $20m startup position for basically peanuts.
- dang 5y ago
  > It's not even an afternoons project. "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." What you posted was a parody of the genre. We're trying for something different here. Maybe you don't owe $20M-funded startups better, but you definitely owe this community better if you're participating in it, so please don't post like this in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
> You.com has publicly committed to never sell user data through targeted ads. I wish this weren't the line people use. Most of the companies we complain about privacywise don't sell user data either. How about "don't monetize user data?"
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- thesausageking 5y ago
  There's no reason to collect user data in the first place. Look at DuckDuckGo's privacy policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy https://duckduckgo.com/privacy "DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell."
  - richardsocher 5y ago
    I love that DDG exists but they do write: "We also save searches" here: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy https://duckduckgo.com/privacy Our incognito mode does not.
    - jjulius 5y ago
      As noted in this[0] comment thread, DDG does not appear to communicate with third-parties, but You does even when the user is in You's "private mode". You might not save searches, but those third-parties can save whatever data they get. People have asked you about this a few times but we haven't received clarification from you yet regarding what's going on here. Can you please shed some light here? [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29172892 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29172892
      - 0des 5y ago
        You won't receive that clarification. This company has already taken funding and have to profit somehow. First it was the browser plugin, soon it's who knows what. You're not getting an answer, and that's likely very intentional.
markdown 5y ago
what a poor name for a search engine. A: "Hey how often does the earth go around the sun?" B: "I dunno... you it."
- dang 5y ago
  "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - markdown 5y ago
    I disagree with your assessment of my comment. There was nothing more to add about it. It's a very poor name, and for a product such as this where you want massive adoption across the entire world, the name is everything. A name can make or break, and their name has broken them before they even got off the ground. My guess is that they had a domain name sitting around, and this was the best idea they had to monetise the domain. Because there's no way you'd start with a great product and then add on a shitty name at the end.
    - dang 5y ago
      None of that changes that your original comment was obviously a shallow dismissal, and those are against the site guidelines for good reason.
- 988747 5y ago
  B: "I dunno... You find out" Could be the next "hey, Siri" phrase :D
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dmix 5y ago
I searched something on mobile then clicked on the arrow to see more search results (the one shown above Twitter and whatever) and it redirects me to a authentication page. That lasted a good 10 seconds before I closed the browser.
- mttjj 5y ago
  I didn't even get that far. When I clicked Search I got no results and got a message in a scary, red banner that says "To see results and get the convenience of you.com, you’ll need to add the you.com Chrome extension". I'm not even using Chrome. But I guess Vivaldi masquerades as Chrome to websites. Whatever, doesn't matter. I shouldn't have to install a browser extension to use a search engine. Bye, bye.
  - swethmandava 5y ago
    https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-defa... Alternatives to installing the chrome extention!
  - richardsocher 5y ago
    Yea, Vivaldi has some extension bug but you can manually set your defaults or go into incognito mode to try it out without the extension.
    - lolinder 5y ago
      Is there a reason why you have to set your default engine in order to even try you.com?
- richardsocher 5y ago
  Yea. If you want to alter your search settings and have real agency and control over your results... you'll need to create an account to save those settings. You can also use it without changing your settings :)
mtnygard 5y ago
Why on earth does this demand to be installed as an extension in Chrome just to do a search? What is the driving factor behind that decision if they don't track your data?
- mike_d 5y ago
  A browser extension (these were called "toolbars" or "BHOs" in Web 1.0) is the only way to continue capturing searches and direct them to your engine. You.com will quickly figure out that endpoint protection software ("Antivirus") doesn't care how amazing you are or how you are different from the thousand other privacy search engines and labels all of these as "Potentially Unwanted Programs" and nukes them from orbit.
- swethmandava 5y ago
  https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-defa... Alternatives to installing an extension!
  - bpeebles 5y ago
    Right but they're still requiring you to set it as the default search engine or you can't use it on Chrome outside of an Incognito window. That's such bad behavior (and I know it's a hard market to break into) I can't really see ever trying this out more than once or twice just to see what it looks like.
    - throwawaygh 5y ago
      More importantly, it goes directly to the amount of respect they have for the consumer. Stick with DDG.
- Arech 5y ago
  Hm, I've been using it since private beta and on Firefox it just works.
- 5y ago
sschueller 5y ago
Looks like a lot of the money was spent on press. How many more articles am I going to see on HN about this chrome browser extension search thing?
- richardsocher 5y ago
  Lol. We actually spend zero dollars on press.
  - bigwavedave 5y ago
    Considering the responses you've been copying and pasting all day with minor variations whilst ignoring legitimate and relevant feedback from the people you claim to have made this "service" for, I highly recommend you reconsider this stance. Do what's best for your business and, for the love of Zeus, let someone else handle PR.
    - richardsocher 5y ago
      Yap, I listen. The Chrome extension requirement is gone and we are fully open in all browsers now. Thanks for your feedback.
      - bigwavedave 5y ago
        I'd like to apologize for how I've been speaking to you. When I saw your product, I was filled with hope- more competition for the behemoth to deal with is always a good thing, especially if it's privacy-focused and at the very least non-adversarial towards users! Then when I gave it a try and saw that typing a query into the search box didn't lead me to results, merely to a page telling me to download an extension to make this my default search engine right away before even being allowed to try the service... well, I went to the comments to see if my experience was the norm- turns out, not only was my experience the norm, but the founder and ceo of the company was in the comments! Great! Being able to engage with founders and get a deeper understanding of what they're doing and what their struggles/goals/pain points/plans are is one of the things I love most about HN! I can engage with him and see what's going on! Then I see the CEO is replying defensively with things that made no sense, things that tried to make the commenter feel like they were being unreasonable for expecting to try something before jumping through hoops (and by "jumping through hoops", I'm not referring to how difficult/easy installing / uninstalling addons / changing defaults is, I'm referring to deliberate barriers being raised by dark patterns for reasons that do not benefit the user in any way!)... That's what really got my goat. It wasn't the technical inaccuracies in some of the replies, it wasn't the side-stepping while building strawmen when faced with legitimate concerns, it was this particular attitude more than anything that made me angry. It made me think if this is the way the company treats its users, how can they be trusted? However. I'm sorry I lashed out- sincerely, I am. I do hope you have great success and I honestly hope that You (and you!) become the next Google but without doing the whole "evil monopoly" thing they did. I wish you the best of luck. Also, I'm sorry this apology isn't a great apology- pride is a bad habit that I'm still trying to work on.
dragontamer 5y ago
What is a search engine? What is the scope of the data that you search? Who is the customer? Google has made these decisions. 1. The customer is the advertisement companies. This is where Google gets their money from, and therefore is the primary customer. 2. Advertisements, SEO, and information from across the "free web" is collated into one simple to use source (just a "textbox" and one button). The simplest interface you can possibly get. ---------- For a new search engine to outcompete Google, it must change either #1 or #2. Changing #2 seems difficult, but maybe its not so insurmountable? StackOverflow has shown how "tags" can be added to a search for example. I also am old enough to remember "web directories", which was more like a filesystem / phonebook representation of the internet. But ultimately, the big benefit of search is determining the scope of #1: who is the customer, and how do you get money from them? ---------- People may say that "Search Engines" don't have room for innovation anymore, but frankly, I personally have seen the rise of Search Engines over the past 20 years. * Wolfram Alpha -- An odd thing to call a "search engine", but it really is one. Searches upon mathematical encyclopedias, and a strong focus on mathematical formulas. I'd definitely call it successful in its corner of the internet. * Tagging-engines -- The tagging system is moderated by humans. And then humans add/remove data to the tags. Moderators tightly control the tags to ensure that they remain useful (ex: If someone mis-tagged C++ on a Java question on StackOverflow, a human has to come by and fix it later). But tagging systems are "easy" to moderate, and the job of the community is farmed out. You can imagine that a tagging engine is a community platform where the work is distributed among the whole community, and am moderation system exists to build up trust. Ultimately: tagging-engines have a search-engine like interface, but the human-element to curate and organize the information is clearly a good model. -------- I'd say tagging-engines have had the biggest rise in the past 10 years, not only StackOverflow, but many communities seem to be tagging their own data someway / somehow. The moderation team is the product really, even if the moderation team has been recruited from the community. "Crowd Sourcing" at its finest.
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  I think there's quite a lot of ways you can change both #1 and #2. #1: Search engines are cheap enough to operate that you can run them non-profit, for community benefit. The "customer" can be the public good. #2: Even sticking to the free web, depending on how you adjust the ranking algorithms can significantly impair the effectiveness of SEO.
throwawaygh 5y ago
$20mm for a 2010s web mashup shim around bing.com that looks and behaves like it's an undergraduate project. I guess they're blowing the budget on submarines instead of product. Must be nice to have rich friends :-|
- ignoramous 5y ago
  Not really. A lot of BigTech services are undergoing unbundling of late [0]. And given what has transpired, it does look like such 'shims' are here to stay and grow. [0] Various "NewCloud" upstarts are perhaps the most loudest example of this.
  - throwawaygh 5y ago
    in other words the tech is poorly implemented and the idea is obvious? ;-)
    - jawns 5y ago
      Plus the business model is, "We'll figure that out later."
vgeek 5y ago
Why don't new search engines build off of something like http://commoncrawl.org/ http://commoncrawl.org/ instead of Bing's API? Is it purely cost/resources or a combination of freshness and steeper learning curve?
- agencies 5y ago
  I've heard (but can't find the reference) that it doesn't have good enough coverage (independent of freshness).
mkoryak 5y ago
> To see results and get the convenience of you.com, you’ll need to add the you.com Chrome extension. Close tab. This is a terrible first time user experience. I know that it is possible to show search results without a chrome extension. Show me some results, and then maybe you will be able to convince me to add an extension for some bells and whistles.
- swethmandava 5y ago
  We heard you! We no longer require an extension - hope you check it out :)
  - mkoryak 5y ago
    Thanks, I think I will
hunterb123 5y ago
People acting like Brave search didn't just launch. Yes there's a point, just do it. See Bing tank man fiasco. See Google ad monopoly abuse. I hope You.com is successful, as there needs to be more players in this space, but I hope to see more details instead of spamming "privacy". Pro tip 1: Don't just rent Bing's API like DDG, you'll end up with censored results. Also, Bing results suck, so your service will suck. Pro tip 2: Most people will have to type "you." to get their browser autocomplete to work as youtube will be the first result. You're competing with a very popular prefix, I suggest a name change, but it seems this service was made for the domain name. Pro tip 3: Noone is going to install your extension that cares about privacy. Noone will trust that the CEO of Salesforce doesn't want to collect data. Pro tip 4: The homepage throws a lot at you at once.
dang 5y ago
Currently a Show HN: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29165601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29165601 - Nov 2021 (115 comments)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
richardsocher 5y ago
Hey all. We heard you today. The Chrome extension requirement is gone and we are fully open in all browsers now. Thanks for your feedback. Keep it coming :)
joshgrib 5y ago
A lot of people are saying you need to install the extension, but they do have a link describing how to get around that and just use the search https://youdotcom.notion.site/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://youdotcom.notion.site/Setting-You-com-as-your-defaul... You can do https://you.com/search?q=<query> https://you.com/search?q=<query> to see results without installing anything Seems like the extension sets it up to search through the URL bar instead of having to go to the website

44 points by danso 5y ago

> Both DuckDuckGo and You.com partner with Bing on some search results. > It also announced a $20 million seed funding round led by Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures. Breyer Capital, Sound Ventures and Day One Ventures also participated in the funding round How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/bing-web-search-api https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/bing-web-search-ap... ) It doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even an afternoons project.

dragontamer 5y ago
> How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? How much do you think the fair price on the domain "you.com" is? That's probably the bulk of your $20 million right there. I have to imagine that's prime domain-name real-estate.
- laurent123456 5y ago
  First line if the article: > CEO Marc Benioff has been holding onto the "you.com" domain name since 1996 So it cost them nothing.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    It cost Marc Benioff nothing. But what's the fair price to offer the Venture Capitalists for a shot at owning the you.com domain name? If you own 10% of the company, you own 10% of the company's assets (including you.com). --------------- As you can see, selling equity and retaining control of you.com is the obviously best move. Even if this search-engine thing doesn't work out, the domain name will be activated and used for something, driving more traffic and building a brand.
vineyardmike 5y ago
> How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? Its not a 20m payment for what you did, its 20m to help you do what plan. You see "20m for tapping into bing" they see "20m for a new business plan that will make >>20m by tapping into a massive market, and leveraging existing companies effort to not re-invent the wheel"
Barrin92 5y ago
in this case? You work at Salesforce. An absolutely astounding amount of access to funding is and always has been personal connections.
rafaelturk 5y ago
Tapping into Bings Apis looks like a good plan to get started..
anonymouse008 5y ago
> How do you get $20 million dollars for literally just tapping into Bings api? Eh, it marginally boosts Bings revenue, average daily usage, engagement, etc... and shows some type of new sector growth. So go long in MSFT before earnings or push big press releases on this whole new way to monetize search, and you're in a $20m startup position for basically peanuts.
dang 5y ago
> It's not even an afternoons project. "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." What you posted was a parody of the genre. We're trying for something different here. Maybe you don't owe $20M-funded startups better, but you definitely owe this community better if you're participating in it, so please don't post like this in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago

> You.com has publicly committed to never sell user data through targeted ads. I wish this weren't the line people use. Most of the companies we complain about privacywise don't sell user data either. How about "don't monetize user data?"

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
thesausageking 5y ago
There's no reason to collect user data in the first place. Look at DuckDuckGo's privacy policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy https://duckduckgo.com/privacy "DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell."
- richardsocher 5y ago
  I love that DDG exists but they do write: "We also save searches" here: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy https://duckduckgo.com/privacy Our incognito mode does not.
  - jjulius 5y ago
    As noted in this[0] comment thread, DDG does not appear to communicate with third-parties, but You does even when the user is in You's "private mode". You might not save searches, but those third-parties can save whatever data they get. People have asked you about this a few times but we haven't received clarification from you yet regarding what's going on here. Can you please shed some light here? [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29172892 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29172892
    - 0des 5y ago
      You won't receive that clarification. This company has already taken funding and have to profit somehow. First it was the browser plugin, soon it's who knows what. You're not getting an answer, and that's likely very intentional.

markdown 5y ago

what a poor name for a search engine. A: "Hey how often does the earth go around the sun?" B: "I dunno... you it."

dang 5y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- markdown 5y ago
  I disagree with your assessment of my comment. There was nothing more to add about it. It's a very poor name, and for a product such as this where you want massive adoption across the entire world, the name is everything. A name can make or break, and their name has broken them before they even got off the ground. My guess is that they had a domain name sitting around, and this was the best idea they had to monetise the domain. Because there's no way you'd start with a great product and then add on a shitty name at the end.
  - dang 5y ago
    None of that changes that your original comment was obviously a shallow dismissal, and those are against the site guidelines for good reason.
988747 5y ago
B: "I dunno... You find out" Could be the next "hey, Siri" phrase :D

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dmix 5y ago

I searched something on mobile then clicked on the arrow to see more search results (the one shown above Twitter and whatever) and it redirects me to a authentication page. That lasted a good 10 seconds before I closed the browser.

mttjj 5y ago
I didn't even get that far. When I clicked Search I got no results and got a message in a scary, red banner that says "To see results and get the convenience of you.com, you’ll need to add the you.com Chrome extension". I'm not even using Chrome. But I guess Vivaldi masquerades as Chrome to websites. Whatever, doesn't matter. I shouldn't have to install a browser extension to use a search engine. Bye, bye.
- swethmandava 5y ago
  https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-defa... Alternatives to installing the chrome extention!
- richardsocher 5y ago
  Yea, Vivaldi has some extension bug but you can manually set your defaults or go into incognito mode to try it out without the extension.
  - lolinder 5y ago
    Is there a reason why you have to set your default engine in order to even try you.com?
richardsocher 5y ago
Yea. If you want to alter your search settings and have real agency and control over your results... you'll need to create an account to save those settings. You can also use it without changing your settings :)

mtnygard 5y ago

Why on earth does this demand to be installed as an extension in Chrome just to do a search? What is the driving factor behind that decision if they don't track your data?

mike_d 5y ago
A browser extension (these were called "toolbars" or "BHOs" in Web 1.0) is the only way to continue capturing searches and direct them to your engine. You.com will quickly figure out that endpoint protection software ("Antivirus") doesn't care how amazing you are or how you are different from the thousand other privacy search engines and labels all of these as "Potentially Unwanted Programs" and nukes them from orbit.
swethmandava 5y ago
https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://www.notion.so/youdotcom/Setting-You-com-as-your-defa... Alternatives to installing an extension!
- bpeebles 5y ago
  Right but they're still requiring you to set it as the default search engine or you can't use it on Chrome outside of an Incognito window. That's such bad behavior (and I know it's a hard market to break into) I can't really see ever trying this out more than once or twice just to see what it looks like.
  - throwawaygh 5y ago
    More importantly, it goes directly to the amount of respect they have for the consumer. Stick with DDG.
Arech 5y ago
Hm, I've been using it since private beta and on Firefox it just works.
5y ago

sschueller 5y ago

Looks like a lot of the money was spent on press. How many more articles am I going to see on HN about this chrome browser extension search thing?

richardsocher 5y ago
Lol. We actually spend zero dollars on press.
- bigwavedave 5y ago
  Considering the responses you've been copying and pasting all day with minor variations whilst ignoring legitimate and relevant feedback from the people you claim to have made this "service" for, I highly recommend you reconsider this stance. Do what's best for your business and, for the love of Zeus, let someone else handle PR.
  - richardsocher 5y ago
    Yap, I listen. The Chrome extension requirement is gone and we are fully open in all browsers now. Thanks for your feedback.
    - bigwavedave 5y ago
      I'd like to apologize for how I've been speaking to you. When I saw your product, I was filled with hope- more competition for the behemoth to deal with is always a good thing, especially if it's privacy-focused and at the very least non-adversarial towards users! Then when I gave it a try and saw that typing a query into the search box didn't lead me to results, merely to a page telling me to download an extension to make this my default search engine right away before even being allowed to try the service... well, I went to the comments to see if my experience was the norm- turns out, not only was my experience the norm, but the founder and ceo of the company was in the comments! Great! Being able to engage with founders and get a deeper understanding of what they're doing and what their struggles/goals/pain points/plans are is one of the things I love most about HN! I can engage with him and see what's going on! Then I see the CEO is replying defensively with things that made no sense, things that tried to make the commenter feel like they were being unreasonable for expecting to try something before jumping through hoops (and by "jumping through hoops", I'm not referring to how difficult/easy installing / uninstalling addons / changing defaults is, I'm referring to deliberate barriers being raised by dark patterns for reasons that do not benefit the user in any way!)... That's what really got my goat. It wasn't the technical inaccuracies in some of the replies, it wasn't the side-stepping while building strawmen when faced with legitimate concerns, it was this particular attitude more than anything that made me angry. It made me think if this is the way the company treats its users, how can they be trusted? However. I'm sorry I lashed out- sincerely, I am. I do hope you have great success and I honestly hope that You (and you!) become the next Google but without doing the whole "evil monopoly" thing they did. I wish you the best of luck. Also, I'm sorry this apology isn't a great apology- pride is a bad habit that I'm still trying to work on.

dragontamer 5y ago

What is a search engine? What is the scope of the data that you search? Who is the customer? Google has made these decisions. 1. The customer is the advertisement companies. This is where Google gets their money from, and therefore is the primary customer. 2. Advertisements, SEO, and information from across the "free web" is collated into one simple to use source (just a "textbox" and one button). The simplest interface you can possibly get. ---------- For a new search engine to outcompete Google, it must change either #1 or #2. Changing #2 seems difficult, but maybe its not so insurmountable? StackOverflow has shown how "tags" can be added to a search for example. I also am old enough to remember "web directories", which was more like a filesystem / phonebook representation of the internet. But ultimately, the big benefit of search is determining the scope of #1: who is the customer, and how do you get money from them? ---------- People may say that "Search Engines" don't have room for innovation anymore, but frankly, I personally have seen the rise of Search Engines over the past 20 years. * Wolfram Alpha -- An odd thing to call a "search engine", but it really is one. Searches upon mathematical encyclopedias, and a strong focus on mathematical formulas. I'd definitely call it successful in its corner of the internet. * Tagging-engines -- The tagging system is moderated by humans. And then humans add/remove data to the tags. Moderators tightly control the tags to ensure that they remain useful (ex: If someone mis-tagged C++ on a Java question on StackOverflow, a human has to come by and fix it later). But tagging systems are "easy" to moderate, and the job of the community is farmed out. You can imagine that a tagging engine is a community platform where the work is distributed among the whole community, and am moderation system exists to build up trust. Ultimately: tagging-engines have a search-engine like interface, but the human-element to curate and organize the information is clearly a good model. -------- I'd say tagging-engines have had the biggest rise in the past 10 years, not only StackOverflow, but many communities seem to be tagging their own data someway / somehow. The moderation team is the product really, even if the moderation team has been recruited from the community. "Crowd Sourcing" at its finest.

marginalia_nu 5y ago
I think there's quite a lot of ways you can change both #1 and #2. #1: Search engines are cheap enough to operate that you can run them non-profit, for community benefit. The "customer" can be the public good. #2: Even sticking to the free web, depending on how you adjust the ranking algorithms can significantly impair the effectiveness of SEO.

throwawaygh 5y ago

$20mm for a 2010s web mashup shim around bing.com that looks and behaves like it's an undergraduate project. I guess they're blowing the budget on submarines instead of product. Must be nice to have rich friends :-|

ignoramous 5y ago
Not really. A lot of BigTech services are undergoing unbundling of late [0]. And given what has transpired, it does look like such 'shims' are here to stay and grow. [0] Various "NewCloud" upstarts are perhaps the most loudest example of this.
- throwawaygh 5y ago
  in other words the tech is poorly implemented and the idea is obvious? ;-)
  - jawns 5y ago
    Plus the business model is, "We'll figure that out later."

vgeek 5y ago

Why don't new search engines build off of something like http://commoncrawl.org/ http://commoncrawl.org/ instead of Bing's API? Is it purely cost/resources or a combination of freshness and steeper learning curve?

agencies 5y ago
I've heard (but can't find the reference) that it doesn't have good enough coverage (independent of freshness).

mkoryak 5y ago

> To see results and get the convenience of you.com, you’ll need to add the you.com Chrome extension. Close tab. This is a terrible first time user experience. I know that it is possible to show search results without a chrome extension. Show me some results, and then maybe you will be able to convince me to add an extension for some bells and whistles.

swethmandava 5y ago
We heard you! We no longer require an extension - hope you check it out :)
- mkoryak 5y ago
  Thanks, I think I will

hunterb123 5y ago

People acting like Brave search didn't just launch. Yes there's a point, just do it. See Bing tank man fiasco. See Google ad monopoly abuse. I hope You.com is successful, as there needs to be more players in this space, but I hope to see more details instead of spamming "privacy". Pro tip 1: Don't just rent Bing's API like DDG, you'll end up with censored results. Also, Bing results suck, so your service will suck. Pro tip 2: Most people will have to type "you." to get their browser autocomplete to work as youtube will be the first result. You're competing with a very popular prefix, I suggest a name change, but it seems this service was made for the domain name. Pro tip 3: Noone is going to install your extension that cares about privacy. Noone will trust that the CEO of Salesforce doesn't want to collect data. Pro tip 4: The homepage throws a lot at you at once.

dang 5y ago

Currently a Show HN: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29165601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29165601 - Nov 2021 (115 comments)

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

richardsocher 5y ago

Hey all. We heard you today. The Chrome extension requirement is gone and we are fully open in all browsers now. Thanks for your feedback. Keep it coming :)

joshgrib 5y ago

A lot of people are saying you need to install the extension, but they do have a link describing how to get around that and just use the search https://youdotcom.notion.site/Setting-You-com-as-your-default-manually-0c6fb51849274747a28cf96d52239c82 https://youdotcom.notion.site/Setting-You-com-as-your-defaul... You can do https://you.com/search?q=<query> https://you.com/search?q=<query> to see results without installing anything Seems like the extension sets it up to search through the URL bar instead of having to go to the website