From the about: "This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. "

I personally find it hard to put into words, but the old internet and old search engines had this feel to them that you never knew what you were going to get. Each site looked different. Each site had it's own philosophy of content and design. Everybody was winging it. It just felt more personal and interesting. At the risk of hyperbole, now it seems search engines give back mostly SEO blogspam that all looks the same.

Marginalia feels more like the former internet.

> now it seems search engines give back mostly SEO blogspam

And with technical questions, too many results are not correct. It seems that Google search is really going down hill in this regard. I'd like a way to vote down results that are obviously SEO trash, but I'm pretty sure if that were provided, it would be gamed too.

It's something like Google but what it kept working like it did in 2002 and then added a bunch of discovery features.