[HN Gopher] Neeva: Ad-free, subscription-based search engine lau...
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       Neeva: Ad-free, subscription-based search engine launches
        
       Author : mrry
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2021-06-29 15:05 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (neeva.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (neeva.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | bun_at_work wrote:
       | This is super exciting. Every single "free" service that is
       | supported by ad revenue should have a counterpart that is paid
       | instead.
       | 
       | I'm excited to try this, although I do tons of search from iOS,
       | and want to know if this can be selected as the default search
       | engine. It isn't clear from the FAQ.
        
         | proxyforce wrote:
         | Apologies for the confusion. We have our own iOS browser app
         | which you can try here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neeva-
         | browser-search-engine/id....
         | 
         | Also, we have instructions for setting Neeva as the default
         | search on mobile Firefox and Chrome, along with a "workaround"
         | for Safari: https://help.neeva.com/hc/en-
         | us/articles/1500011550601-How-t...
         | 
         | (I'm an engineer working on Neeva)
        
       | bigpumpkin wrote:
       | Feels laggy compared to google.
        
       | vertis wrote:
       | > Coming soon to your region!       > Enter your email to join
       | our waitlist, and we'll get in touch as soon as Neeva is
       | available in your corner of the world.
       | 
       | Not available unless you live in the US I guess
        
         | dvh wrote:
         | I've seen this strategy in movie and music business and the
         | only reason I can think of is that they don't actually want to
         | sell the product. Their real income is from something else,
         | like sub-licensing to third-parties, so that they don't have to
         | handle end users which is labor intensive. Or maybe they just
         | want to get bought.
        
           | denysvitali wrote:
           | I would say that, generally speaking, data regulation is
           | another huge topic. Not sure if how much it applies here
           | though, but considering they process payments and similar,
           | they need to implement GDPR stuff for Europe
        
             | proxyforce wrote:
             | Hey guys, I work on Neeva and wanted to add some more
             | context re: US only launch. We work with partners to
             | provide localized data for results such as weather, sports,
             | movies and more. We're working hard to get these
             | partnerships in place beyond the US, and we expect to
             | launch in Canada and Western Europe within a few quarters.
        
       | merlinscholz wrote:
       | Interesting that there is no mention of Brave Search here, a
       | subscription-based search engine in public beta:
       | https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547158/brave-search-bet...
        
       | browningstreet wrote:
       | I was approved for their beta, but they wanted to install an
       | extension. Then I tried their reveal today, need an account just
       | to see. Maybe they'll get the buzz they're looking for, but I
       | don't trust their product management I'd this is how the test and
       | launch.
        
       | giancarlostoro wrote:
       | Looks like it's a $5 a month search engine. This is something
       | I've kind of wanted for ages, so I guess I'll sign up and see how
       | it works. I secretly wish Mozilla the corporation would of made
       | their own search engine with a subscription model ages ago.
       | 
       | Mozilla corp / non-profit has a history somewhat similar to
       | Google's where they seem to build things they phase out, and not
       | do things to make themselve sustainable enough to not have to
       | mass fire people who do a net good for the greater internet
       | community that relies on them (thinking of MDN).
        
       | herlitzj wrote:
       | Ads aren't the only problem. All the SEO clickbait is worse than
       | the ads in my opinion. I can ignore the ads, but anymore a lot of
       | the time the first page or two of results are just clickbait
       | junk. Look at their example results. #3 looks like an SEO
       | clickbait site to me.
       | 
       | edit: Looks like you can customize results somewhat, so maybe
       | that will help? A quick way to silence those kinds of hits would
       | be nice.
        
         | MiddleEndian wrote:
         | For those who have joined, I'm curious about the following
         | query:
         | 
         | Are women better than men at limbo?
         | 
         | The results on Google[0] and Bing[1] are both entirely useless
         | clickbait. I just want to know if women can bend back farther
         | than men without falling over.
         | 
         | 0. https://www.middleendian.com/limbogoogle.png
         | 
         | 1. https://www.middleendian.com/limbobing.png
        
         | bun_at_work wrote:
         | I don't know enough about SEO/web crawlers, so this might be a
         | silly question, but there is a way to identify SEO optimized
         | websites, right? Isn't there a special file or something?
         | 
         | Not sure if it'd be optimal, but dropping all search results
         | with such optimization might bring a more broad search across
         | the internet (more sites than just the common clickbait ones).
        
           | _manifold wrote:
           | Dropping SEO optimized results from a search is a bit of an
           | oxymoronical idea. You'd essentially be punishing websites
           | for simply ranking higher in search results which doesn't
           | make sense.
        
           | DenverCode wrote:
           | The vast majority of SEO optimization at this point is
           | through backlinks, internal keywords, meta tags, links,
           | headings, keyword usage, etc.
        
       | kilodeca wrote:
       | Is this open source?
        
         | bla3 wrote:
         | No.
        
           | kilodeca wrote:
           | Then why the hell it exists?
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | Barrin92 wrote:
       | I'm a little bit skeptical about this notion that the ad model is
       | fundamentally detrimental to the search results that Google gives
       | you. It honestly doesn't even seem like it makes business sense.
       | At the end of the day Google benefits from giving the most
       | accurate results in the long term, and it's such a money printing
       | engine I don't think they're degrading the search quality.
       | 
       | Whenever I tried privacy-first or "non-ad" search engines, most
       | recently duckduckgo, I found myself spamming !g a lot.
       | 
       | It's nice to have an alternative obviously and I hope it's
       | sustainable to have a paid search engine but it in some sense
       | seems more like a lifestyle product to me.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-29 23:02 UTC)