

Ask HN: is there an opportunity for a non commercial search engine? - andrewstuart

What do you think of the idea of a search engine that does not include results for anything commercial such as products, services or companies?  Madness or market opportunity?<p>The reason I have been thinking about this is because when wikipedia first became popular it was very often the top ranked search result for many searches.  Now Wikipedia is rarely on the first page - Google is dominated by commercial interests, whether Google's own interests or that of companies who optimise themselves to the top of the rankings.  Google gains nothing commercially from Wikipedia being in search results so it has been algorithmed out.<p>I was wondering if a non commercial search engine would bring Wikipedia back to the top.
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asanwal
Most of Google's ad money comes from the commercial searches, i.e., digital
camera, diapers, etc. Those are the searches that advertisers bid on and
people click Google ads.

A "non-commercial" search loses that entire opportunity.

So in short, IMO - madness.

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klapinat0r
If by madness you imply there's no market for it, I'd disagree. However, the
idea isn't new: <http://blekko.com/ws/+/about>

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asanwal
Blekko hasn't proven there is a market for it. They've got some interesting
things going on, some good PR in tech circles and have raised some money but
until they show revenue, profit and a sustainable business model, the decision
on whether there is a real (or just imagined) market is TBD.

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rick888
I think you could do it, but unless you are funding it through some other
means, it's not going to be able to get very big.

What defines Commercial? If I have a website for my side project and I ask for
donations, is that considered commercial?

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mw63214
drop.in - "don't search for stuff. search for inspiration. do it. drop.in"

?

