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Comment by kjackson2012 | Hacker News Reader

kjackson2012·

I've tried Blekko a couple of times, and thought they were okay, but I don't find them so much better than Google to make me switch.

I'm curious, how Blekko can stay in business? Do they get enough traffic and revenue from ads, etc, to maintain some sort of positive cash flow, or are they simply burning through cash from investors?

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For me, blekko doesn't have to be "so much better" to make me use it over Google, it just has to be just as good or slightly better because I respect and support blekko's philosophy. If two products were of equal quality, wouldn't you rather use the one made by a company that shares your values?

Strongly agree! blekko's Bill of Rights is a great expression of their values and of why we should all be using blekko.

blekko Bill of Rights

1. Search shall be open

2. Search results shall involve people

3. Ranking data shall not be kept secret

4. Web data shall be readily available

5. There is no one-size-fits-all for search

6. Advanced search shall be accessible

7. Search engine tools shall be open to all

8. Search & community go hand-in-hand

9. Spam does not belong in search results

10. Privacy of searchers shall not be violated

Although to be fair, you have to pay to get the SEO/Ranking data now. I'm cool with that if it keeps the service open but it should be pointed out.

On a related note www.procog.com has a totally open algorithm.

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