One could have been skeptical about US-funding a bunch of university students to build a search engine a few years ago.
I’m just skeptical if the EU bureaucrats will put the money in the right place, and if this is even the right approach.
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.
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)
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.)