Well said … KISS is very key for those kinds of sites…. Originally, people used to think that because everyone’s Internet connection was dial up or “slow high speed” that loading graphs and a lot of code was a problem .. then along comes “higher speed high speed” and suddenly the world got into bulky home pages that have 20+ external calls, analytics/tracking code and a whole raft of other shit …
> On Oct 27, 2016, at 7:15 PM, Robert Andrews <[email protected]> wrote: > > Netscape, back in the day was the front end to the top 5 search engines and > we distributed search queries in a round robin unless people put a preference > in their settings. We had some glue that let us know how fast people went > to an end site so we could rate the search engines internally.. (hedging our > bets and power in the negotiations with the engines)... The interesting > thing was the simpler the search engine interface the more it got hit. > Google is slowly getting worse and worse on the front page. Yeah it's > valuable, the top page, but Yahoo went down the rat hole faster and faster as > the front page got trashed. IF you go to google now on a slow link it just > plain dies because of all the hidden sh.t... KISS was the most important > thing back then and I would venture that it is now. What is disappointing > is that the search engines aren't really getting any more intelligent. > Google made so much progress because they could "sell" search results and > monetize what was not monetized before. The actual results for finding > something not obvious is still garbage... Natural Language searches are > still infantile... There is a lot of room for improvement in getting a > better search language. > > On 10/27/2016 03:36 PM, Travis Johnson wrote: >> About 5+ years ago, I had a friend that built a search engine front end. >> You would input your search, and it would query Google, Yahoo, MSN and a >> few others, and then based on the results from all of them, rank the >> results you would see based on how the other engines saw the world. It >> was very fast and actually produced some amazing results. >> >> He never did anything with it, and I'm pretty sure it has since died a >> slow death. Google has the majority of searches now because everyone >> knows the name, everyone references it (even on TV shows, movies, >> etc)... and it's a unique name that everyone remembers. It's also easy >> to type on a keyboard. LOL >> >> Travis >> >> >> On 10/27/2016 4:26 PM, Paul Stewart wrote: >>> Interesting and thanks… >>> >>> Have you ever tried Gigablast for example? (www.gigablast.com >>> <http://www.gigablast.com>) It’s a great example in my opinion of an >>> “alternative” search engine that typically provides good results … I >>> also find that DuckDuckGo (www.duckduckgo.com >>> <http://www.duckduckgo.com>) providers better results on searches than >>> Google. >>> >>> The challenge is that everyone is so used to Google whether it’s >>> actually better or not - it’s the benchmark to beat sometimes….. >>> >>> Thanks again, >>> Paul >>> >>>> On Oct 27, 2016, at 6:13 PM, Simon Westlake <[email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >>>> >>>> The only way I would use something else would be if it offered me >>>> something beyond what Google does. I've tried others, and the search >>>> results are often inferior, or the same, which doesn't leave me with >>>> much reason to use anything other than Google. >>>> >>>> I'd happily use a better product if it was offered, but I think >>>> that's probably a tall order. >>>> >>>> On 10/27/2016 4:07 PM, Paul Stewart wrote: >>>>> Hey folks… I’ve been trying to figure out lately where to ask this >>>>> question …. >>>>> >>>>> I have a long time hobby of working around search engines … actually >>>>> building them, coding them, scaling them etc…. various open source, >>>>> homebuilt, and commercial offerings I’ve used…. >>>>> >>>>> This is probably 20 years I’ve been “dabbling” in this space and seen a >>>>> huge change in how search engines are perceived, utilized etc…. >>>>> >>>>> My question that I’m looking for feedback on, knowing that this group is >>>>> extremely good at feedback is this: >>>>> >>>>> When you use a search engine, do you ever think of using something other >>>>> than Google? (ie. Bing, Duckduckgo) >>>>> Do you feel a search engine that is country specific is something that >>>>> you would go out of your way to use … or just use whatever is in your >>>>> browser and don’t care? >>>>> Is privacy of what you search for on a search engine of concern at all? >>>>> >>>>> thanks - this helps me a great deal … >>>>> >>>>> I’m considering launching a project involving a search engine and >>>>> challenged with what it’s primary focus should be …. :) >>>>> >>>>> Cheers, >>>>> Paul >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Simon Westlake >>>> Skype: Simon_Sonar >>>> Email:[email protected] >>>> Phone: (702) 447-1247 >>>> --------------------------- >>>> Sonar Software Inc >>>> The future of ISP billing and OSS >>>> https://sonar.software >>> >>
