Hacker News Reader

I wish I could agree but from my experience, DDG's search results aren't really that great. Often even worse than Google's.

And another private company is not the answer I believe. We need something more drastic, an open-source search engine organized as a genuine non-profit organization. Something like that. Otherwise, whatever replaces Google will just turn into another Google as soon as it gets any momentum.

View on HN

I think open source will be tough because you're going to need a lot of saints to work on a search engine of Google's caliber.

Maybe an alternative revenue model instead of ads.

Consortium of universities, perhaps? Every top school (globally) kicks in some design and development time. It seems odd that the most critical link to access information on the planet is not the product of academia. With a country’s skin in the global game, there may be better leverage to keep it free and open for their citizens.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com