Do Google, Yahoo!, and Bing filter the content we search for on the internet? It’s almost certain they do. It’s very simple for major search engines to alter the relevance of what we’re looking for and deliver content guided by their own interests.
Although these companies were born in the heart of Silicon Valley, created by geeks obsessed with 0s and 1s, with positive ideologies and a vision very different from those who built the so-called “old economy,” these companies eventually became large corporations thirsty for profit, just like those old economy companies.
It is to be expected—and it’s no surprise—that the content shown on our computer screens when we perform a search is manipulated and indexed according to the convenience of each search engine. And why not? But that’s another “story.”
Now, imagine an open-source, free, decentralized, peer-to-peer search engine that you install on your own computer to join thousands of other computers worldwide in searching for information on the internet. This already exists and goes by the name YaCy.
YaCy is a search engine designed to search the internet without censorship and without fuss. The project is recent. There are problems, so don’t be fooled. But it’s very interesting. The idea of having a network of “friends” (peers) serving as the base to deliver search results on the internet seems very cool to me.
No CPC, CPI, or whatever. No sponsored links or irrelevant indexing of the content delivered to me.
The idea isn’t new. YaCy works like any other P2P program, such as Vuze, E-mule (remember this one?), BitTorrent, uTorrent, Shareaza, among others. In other words, you need to have a “client” installed on your computer to be part of the network. Fact. And this is the part I didn’t like.
YaCy runs a web app on port 8090, so any good Samaritan could make an address available on the net so we can participate in the YaCy network — that is, enjoy the searches without necessarily having to install any app on our computers.
The installation is simple, I’d say very simple. The app is already available on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
What I liked a lot: being able to count on friends scattered around the world to perform my searches. Content without censorship.
What I liked: The arsenal of tools available for managing the YaCy server.
What I didn’t like: Speed and search results.
Obviously, there is still a lot of work ahead. But it’s a great initiative that deserves support.
To learn more about YaCy, visit the website at http://yacy.net.
To see YaCy in action, as a good Samaritan, I set up a server to be part of the project full time. The address is http://yacy.hti.com.br:8090.
Let’s support this initiative!
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