4 ms·

Curious to hear: what are some rising Google competitors that try to do a better job?

by hubraumhugo 5y ago

XoS-490 5y ago
https://you.com https://you.com
- hubraumhugo 5y ago
  https://neeva.com https://neeva.com looks similar
  - everybodyknows 5y ago
    > 6. Fees. The Services are currently offered by Neeva free of charge. Neeva reserves the right to charge fees for the Services in the future. https://neeva.com/terms https://neeva.com/terms Sustainability TBD, but they do have a plan.
- everybodyknows 5y ago
  > We’re in beta and feel like our product is not yet fully realized. Sustainability remains TBD.
JSONderulo 5y ago
I've been playing around with you.com after someone mentioned on HN. I dig the layout/quality of results. It's kind of interesting to have it feel like you're netflixing your search results by source (reddit, stack overflow, etc.) I'm still toggling back and forth on you to google because i feel like i might miss out something. Surprisingly some the results have exceeded my expectations. We'll see.
- ffhhj 5y ago
  The side scrolling is nice, but when searching some code related question it doesn't show useful results. Even the Code Complete snippets aren't displayed in a readable way, lines are too short, and the language highlight is not recognized (every script is python by default?). Thanks for mentioning it since I'm creating a snippet search engine and wanted some competitors to compare.
- bunnyfoofoo 5y ago
  This site is quite laggy, I'm assuming because of all the JS. Tried to load it with JS disabled and it doesn't work at all.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    The site isn’t laggy for me on an ipad7, as for disabled js I don’t see the point anymore this is like trying to load webpages without css or html at this point.
jart 5y ago
It's hard to compete with Google. Back when Google started, you could fit the world wide web on a single computer. Today you can only really get started the same way Google did if you focus on an unfancy subset of the web that hasn't been react'd and wasm'd into exabytes of opacity. https://wiby.org/ https://wiby.org/ does it I think by refusing to index any HTML page that has <script> tags. Websites like https://millionshort.com/ https://millionshort.com/ provide pretty nice results sometimes, but I don't think they actually index the web on their own; they probably use the Bing or Google API on the backend. With million short if I want bike reviews for example, I get the authentic blog posts from 2010 with amazon affiliate links to bike listings that are no longer being sold lol. The problem is I don't think the Wiby model (rejecting JavaScript) or the MillionShort model (rejecting popularity) have done a good job capturing what we loved most about the old web and systematizing its curation. There's definitely an opportunity for someone to come along and create a focused niche alternative that's better. One way I suppose it could be done, is if you convinced a bunch of trustworthy high status trendsetter type people to subscribe to a paid service with a browser toolbar that lets them click a button for each website they visit to say "I like this" or "I dislike this" and then use that information to train a neural network that divides seo spam from content. Mix that with classic page rank and you might have something good. I'm not sure if it'd ever appeal to a more general public audience though. Anyone who does it is also going to want to make a deal with the archive.org to somehow get a snapshot of the old web, to recreate those original experiments. Or possibly even resurrect an old build of it. Plus Gutenberg. There's enough content from 2005 web alone and all the books published before to last anyone several lifetimes. That's actually one of Google's blind spots. They're so good at up-to-the-minute indexing of current events that sometimes if you just want to get the text to something like Seneca it's like pulling teeth.
- gombosg 5y ago
  That browser toolbar was called stumbleupon.com :) Good memories of a somewhat different web!
  - Breza 5y ago
    I used to love SU! So much so that I gave it up for Lent one year. It brought back the serendipity of the old web.
ColinHayhurst 5y ago
https://www.mojeek.com/ https://www.mojeek.com/ no-tracking, independent crawler/index
- karlzt 5y ago
  Why is your search engine so bad? Brave Search (with their own index) is new and is already better or as good as duckduckgo.
  - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
    What search(es) did you try?
    - karlzt 5y ago
      Lyrics search(es) like: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=a%20split%20second%20Mambo%20witch%20lyrics https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=a%20split%20second%20Mambo%2... https://search.brave.com/search?q=a+split+second+Mambo+witch+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=a+split+second+Mambo+witch... Another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=generator+7%2F8+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=generator+7%2F8+lyrics Edit: Here's another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=neuroticfish+the+bomb+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=neuroticfish+the+bomb+lyri...
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - karlzt 5y ago
        Yet another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=chrysalide+not+my+world+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=chrysalide+not+my+world+ly...
      - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
        Many thanks. That's helpful. We don't appear to have any of those pages or anything relevant indexed. We'll look into whether these lyric sites have put up some barriers to crawling. If they are big sites we won't have crawled and indexed many of their pages.
1_player 5y ago
Brave Search is actually quite good, and better than DDG in my opinion. And it's their own index, not piggybacking on Bing or Google.
- IgorPartola 5y ago
  Does it offer similar privacy promises as DDG?
  - 1_player 5y ago
    It certainly _promises_ to be private like DDG does, but AFAIK none of them have been audited.
Axien 5y ago
Siri, Alexa, and Amazon. When someone need to know the weather or a sports score they usually just ask Siri or Alexa. If they want to do product research most people go to Amazon. Google search is now below 50% and still falling. Think about it. You want to buy a coffee maker. What is the first site you go? It is probably not Google.
- georgyo 5y ago
  Amazon has a horrible review scam policy. It's okay by Amazon policy for sellers to pay people to remove their bad reviews. Being highly rated on Amazon is so valuable, that there are whole industries on making sure your reviews are high, including all sorts of malicious review hijacking. Amazon the company does not seem to care.
donkarma 5y ago
kagi.com
- everybodyknows 5y ago
  > What does it mean that you’re in “private beta”? While we're in private beta, we don't feel like our vision is fully realized and ready for prime time > How much will Kagi cost? Kagi will be completely free during the beta-test period for all users. Once we officially launch, we plan to offer entry level plans for as low as $10/month, ... https://kagi.com/faq https://kagi.com/faq

Curious to hear: what are some rising Google competitors that try to do a better job?

XoS-490 5y ago

https://you.com https://you.com

hubraumhugo 5y ago
https://neeva.com https://neeva.com looks similar
- everybodyknows 5y ago
  > 6. Fees. The Services are currently offered by Neeva free of charge. Neeva reserves the right to charge fees for the Services in the future. https://neeva.com/terms https://neeva.com/terms Sustainability TBD, but they do have a plan.
everybodyknows 5y ago
> We’re in beta and feel like our product is not yet fully realized. Sustainability remains TBD.

JSONderulo 5y ago

I've been playing around with you.com after someone mentioned on HN. I dig the layout/quality of results. It's kind of interesting to have it feel like you're netflixing your search results by source (reddit, stack overflow, etc.) I'm still toggling back and forth on you to google because i feel like i might miss out something. Surprisingly some the results have exceeded my expectations. We'll see.

ffhhj 5y ago
The side scrolling is nice, but when searching some code related question it doesn't show useful results. Even the Code Complete snippets aren't displayed in a readable way, lines are too short, and the language highlight is not recognized (every script is python by default?). Thanks for mentioning it since I'm creating a snippet search engine and wanted some competitors to compare.
bunnyfoofoo 5y ago
This site is quite laggy, I'm assuming because of all the JS. Tried to load it with JS disabled and it doesn't work at all.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  The site isn’t laggy for me on an ipad7, as for disabled js I don’t see the point anymore this is like trying to load webpages without css or html at this point.

jart 5y ago

It's hard to compete with Google. Back when Google started, you could fit the world wide web on a single computer. Today you can only really get started the same way Google did if you focus on an unfancy subset of the web that hasn't been react'd and wasm'd into exabytes of opacity. https://wiby.org/ https://wiby.org/ does it I think by refusing to index any HTML page that has <script> tags. Websites like https://millionshort.com/ https://millionshort.com/ provide pretty nice results sometimes, but I don't think they actually index the web on their own; they probably use the Bing or Google API on the backend. With million short if I want bike reviews for example, I get the authentic blog posts from 2010 with amazon affiliate links to bike listings that are no longer being sold lol. The problem is I don't think the Wiby model (rejecting JavaScript) or the MillionShort model (rejecting popularity) have done a good job capturing what we loved most about the old web and systematizing its curation. There's definitely an opportunity for someone to come along and create a focused niche alternative that's better. One way I suppose it could be done, is if you convinced a bunch of trustworthy high status trendsetter type people to subscribe to a paid service with a browser toolbar that lets them click a button for each website they visit to say "I like this" or "I dislike this" and then use that information to train a neural network that divides seo spam from content. Mix that with classic page rank and you might have something good. I'm not sure if it'd ever appeal to a more general public audience though. Anyone who does it is also going to want to make a deal with the archive.org to somehow get a snapshot of the old web, to recreate those original experiments. Or possibly even resurrect an old build of it. Plus Gutenberg. There's enough content from 2005 web alone and all the books published before to last anyone several lifetimes. That's actually one of Google's blind spots. They're so good at up-to-the-minute indexing of current events that sometimes if you just want to get the text to something like Seneca it's like pulling teeth.

gombosg 5y ago
That browser toolbar was called stumbleupon.com :) Good memories of a somewhat different web!
- Breza 5y ago
  I used to love SU! So much so that I gave it up for Lent one year. It brought back the serendipity of the old web.

ColinHayhurst 5y ago

https://www.mojeek.com/ https://www.mojeek.com/ no-tracking, independent crawler/index

karlzt 5y ago
Why is your search engine so bad? Brave Search (with their own index) is new and is already better or as good as duckduckgo.
- ColinHayhurst 5y ago
  What search(es) did you try?
  - karlzt 5y ago
    Lyrics search(es) like: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=a%20split%20second%20Mambo%20witch%20lyrics https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=a%20split%20second%20Mambo%2... https://search.brave.com/search?q=a+split+second+Mambo+witch+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=a+split+second+Mambo+witch... Another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=generator+7%2F8+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=generator+7%2F8+lyrics Edit: Here's another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=neuroticfish+the+bomb+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=neuroticfish+the+bomb+lyri...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - karlzt 5y ago
      Yet another: https://search.brave.com/search?q=chrysalide+not+my+world+lyrics https://search.brave.com/search?q=chrysalide+not+my+world+ly...
    - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
      Many thanks. That's helpful. We don't appear to have any of those pages or anything relevant indexed. We'll look into whether these lyric sites have put up some barriers to crawling. If they are big sites we won't have crawled and indexed many of their pages.

1_player 5y ago

Brave Search is actually quite good, and better than DDG in my opinion. And it's their own index, not piggybacking on Bing or Google.

IgorPartola 5y ago
Does it offer similar privacy promises as DDG?
- 1_player 5y ago
  It certainly _promises_ to be private like DDG does, but AFAIK none of them have been audited.

Axien 5y ago

Siri, Alexa, and Amazon. When someone need to know the weather or a sports score they usually just ask Siri or Alexa. If they want to do product research most people go to Amazon. Google search is now below 50% and still falling. Think about it. You want to buy a coffee maker. What is the first site you go? It is probably not Google.

georgyo 5y ago
Amazon has a horrible review scam policy. It's okay by Amazon policy for sellers to pay people to remove their bad reviews. Being highly rated on Amazon is so valuable, that there are whole industries on making sure your reviews are high, including all sorts of malicious review hijacking. Amazon the company does not seem to care.

donkarma 5y ago

kagi.com

everybodyknows 5y ago
> What does it mean that you’re in “private beta”? While we're in private beta, we don't feel like our vision is fully realized and ready for prime time > How much will Kagi cost? Kagi will be completely free during the beta-test period for all users. Once we officially launch, we plan to offer entry level plans for as low as $10/month, ... https://kagi.com/faq https://kagi.com/faq