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One could have been skeptical about US-funding a bunch of university students to build a search engine a few years ago.
by margarina72 4y ago
One could have been skeptical about US-funding a bunch of university students to build a search engine a few years ago.
- harha 4y agoSearch was quite broken back then. It got reasonably good at some point, now I’d argue it’s the content as a whole that’s gotten worse. I’m just skeptical if the EU bureaucrats will put the money in the right place, and if this is even the right approach.
- margarina72 4y agoThe project can fail, you are correct, but it does not take anything from any other projects, it is just an other initiative trying to contribute in the space. Parent commenter own search project Marginalia Search [1] could even benefit from it, or even maybe collaborate with it. It is not a winner-take-all situation, and we need various open initiative in this space to get out of the current conundrum we are in with Google stronghold on search. 1: https://search.marginalia.nu https://search.marginalia.nu
- harha 4y agoTaxes are taking from funds for personal projects, and universities already get a lot of funding in Europe to do research, maybe they should focus on creating a better environment for students to become researchers or entrepreneurs instead. Overall I think there are better ways to improve search from an EU perspective by doing what they are supposed to be doing: - create a fair environment for companies to compete in, e.g., take a look how Google, Apple or Meta's assets are set up to make it harder for competitors, break that up - improve standards in eduction – it doesn't really make sense for all member countries to think of and maintain a good CS curriculum and they all seem to be pretty bad at it - make it easier to build something and get funded, and reward creating prosperity, don't tax it to death Just tested marginalia's random mode btw. Pretty cool, reminds me of the internet when I was a kid (edit: formatting)
- olalonde 4y agoI don't think the US funded Google?
- arjenpdevries 4y agoGoogle started out of a CIA funded Stanford project.
- ben_w 4y agoCIA? Other people are saying DARPA and NASA got together to fund the NSF which funded the PhDs of the founders of Google, but even that's a bit too indirect IMO. Where does the CIA fit in?
- arjenpdevries 4y agohttps://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-cia-and-nsa-research-grants-for-mass-surveillance/ https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-ci... Enjoy! It's a great story. (Plus: for who might not know, DARPA is US defense research, and heavily influenced by the intelligence services needs. Which is not necessarily bad! Just good to understand where and how Google originated. And wrt DARPA, they funded the creation of the internet itself, for whatever matters. In Europe, things often go slightly different. The Web is a result of CERN, who are also a project partner of OpenWebSearch.EU. Why? Well, better search can also be beneficial for better science, not just for end users wanting to find their way or buying something.)
- ben_w 4y agoThanks :)