A (Personal) Search Engine

Back in Goodbye Google Search! I said: “I think it’s our duty to find alternatives and try them out and see if we can move away from big tech, either by choosing self-hosted alternatives, more ethical companies, or ways to subvert the existing system.” I also talked about quitting Google (Web) Search, or should I say Google AI Answers? Anyway, Google Web Search is dead, so it’s time for something else. I covered a bunch of options in the last post. Meanwhile, through some discussions in a group chat I’m in with a few software developers the idea of a “Personal Search Engine” came up. I did a little looking around and there are things with that name, but they are often made to search your own documents locally stored, or web pages you have bookmarked, or they use LLMs (Yuk!) so this idea is more of a Personal Web Search Engine. Now you need to go read Jason’s post: Personal Search Engines A Personal Search Engine (PSE) is a search engine that specializes in your interests. It provides…