I remember when Google and AlltheWeb shared their index size in the early 2000s, circa 4 billion and it was a flex of the time, and Gigablast was a fresh entran

I remember when Google and AlltheWeb shared their index size in the early 2000s, circa 4 billion and it was a flex of the time, and Gigablast was a fresh entrant. Fair play to Matt Wells. I cannot say that I followed Gigablast's progress studiously over the past 15 years or so, but I understand he had the same issues as all other entrants, like being blocked as a non-whitelisted bot, lack of understanding of being an alternative entry point to the web and generally people choosing convenience. He perhaps deserves more credit than what he has had, building a new frame of reference into the web that you don't see with major search engines.