EU Open Web Search project kicked off

Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by marginalia_nu on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @05:10PM (#32917833)

I don't think the number of people or even the size of the budget is wrong. A small team can be incredibly powerful and productive if you have the right people. In fact, I think far more often search engines fail from trying to start too big than too small.

The problem is that you need people who actually know how to architect complex software systems much more than you need revolutionary new algorithms. For that, professors are the wrong people. A professor on the team, sure, that might be helpful. Not half a Manhattan project's worth.

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by thwayunion on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @09:11PM (#32919836)

> For that, professors are the wrong people.

Have no fear; all of the actual work will be done by PhD students straight out of undergrad, and most of the actual leadership will be done by a string of recent PhD grads who need results in 6 months because they'll be full time job marketing for the 6 months after that ;-)

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by mkl95 on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @05:29PM (#32918050)

It happens all the time in Europe. Collaboration between public and private companies is pretty much a pipe dream in the EU. Some company that actually works on building search technology would achieve way more than a bunch of professors.

I disagree on the budget though. It is basically pocket change.

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by marginalia_nu on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @05:50PM (#32918276)

Arguably the biggest most unsolved problem in search is how to make a profit (or even break even). This can be approached in two ways: You can either try to find some way of making search more profitable, or you can find a way to make search cheaper. I think the latter is a lot more plausible than the former.

A shoestring budget keeps the costs down by design and by necessity. A large budget virtually ensures the search engine becomes so expensive to operate it will never break even.

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by qualudeheart on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @02:30AM (#32921463)

Why not offer a paid tier? Seems to work for Kagi. Information elites will soon flock to paid search engines, which won’t be much more expensive than a streaming subscription. I pay for Netflix and am willing to pay for a search engine that offers as good a search service as the video streaming offered by Netflix.

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by mellavora on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @05:06AM (#32922449)

> Arguably the biggest most unsolved problem in search is how to make a profit

And the EU just solved that problem.

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Re:EU Open Web Search project kicked off by marginalia_nu on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @10:43AM (#32925880)

Did they though?

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