The problemThere is one corporation which controls over 90% of all search traffic. Google. Google once experienced a downtime which was a few minutes long, and it knocked out 40% of all web traffic. Like Bitcoin, the internet was designed as a decentralised system; if any one node malfunctioned, the system would continue to work, therefore providing stability.
Web search is a function which is necessary for the internet to be accessible; without it, it loses its functionality as a system. The idea that one company, one node, can fail, and make the internet inaccessible and less functional, undermines the decentralised nature of the internet.
The solutionYaCy is an example of a P2P search engine. However, I have tried this, and it is ineffective. It yields low quality results and lags your computer. For the altruistic cryptoanarchist seeking freedom from the corporate influence of Google, this may be bearable, but for the average consumer, it is not good enough.
For a search engine to become widespread, it must reach these criteria:
- the results must be of a quality on par with or better than Google
- it must be no more resource-heavy than Google is
- it must have marketing and branding behind it which makes it more glamorous and modern than Google itself, arguably the biggest challenge
In this post, I will propose a model for a cryptographic search engine which could achieve this.
The cryptosearch engine (CSE)The CSE would be accessed via a website, like Google, as opposed to YaCy, which required you to download a program.
Like a regular search engine, webpages would be indexed by spiders, ranked through an algorithm, possibly filtered for NSFW content, and delivered to the user.
However, these functions would not be powered by a centralised collection of servers, but by miners, mining for 'searchcoins'. Searchcoins would, in turn, be usable in purchasing ads shown beside search results, or transferable to others to be sold.
MarketingThe most important part of the marketing will be the name. A big part of Google's success is it's name, it's fun to say and rolls off the tongue. The marketing will need to portray the CSE as a fun-to-use search engine. I suggest adding games and interactive features as easter eggs for entering certain search terms, adding frequent doodles, and perhaps promoting how the search engine can be used for different functions in a pinch.
Thoughts?