* * * * *
                                        
                   The search engine for text-heavy web sites
                                        
The Marginalia Search Engine [1] (link via kontakt [2]) is a fresh approach
to search engines. Instead of Page Rank [3] it uses a different method that
probably does a better job than Google:

> As a consequence, the closer to plain text a website is, the higher it'll
> score. The more markup it has in relation to its text, the lower it will
> score. Each script tag is punished. One script tag will still give the page
> a relatively high score, given all else is premium quality; but once you
> start having multiple script tags, you'll very quickly find yourself at the
> bottom of the search results.
> 
> Modern web sites have a lot of script tags. The web page of Rolling Stone
> Magazine has over a hundred script tags in its HTML (HyperText Markup
> Language) code. Its quality rating is of the order 10^-51%.
> 

“Marginalia Search - Notes on Designing a Search Engine [4]”

The more markup, the lower the score. Javascript and the score falls through
the floor. Neat.

And from the few tests I ran, it seems to be a pretty decent search engine
for what I'd use it for.

[1] https://search.marginalia.nu/
[2] gemini://marginalia.nu/log/01-astrolabe.gmi
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
[4] https://search.marginalia.nu/notes.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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