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Alexandria Search

alexandria.org

41–50 of 181 posts

Re: Alexandria Search

#41
I'll use it for general searches in the next days because it's the only way to do a fair evaluation.

I just searched for python3 join string and I didn't get the Python docs in the first page. Both DDG and Google got them at position 9 which is way too low. At least I got a different set of random websites and not the usual tutorialpoint, w3schools, geeksforgeeks etc that I usually see in these cases.

Re: Alexandria Search

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first search on Alexandria was "UTC time". Google gives me the current time in UTC, which is all I needed. Alexandria gave me...a lot of links to click to find what I'm looking for. Google search is a lot better than people give it credit for.

we're exploring adding instant answers in clean way at Breeze; leaning towards using open-source library &/or external API to compute vs. building in-house also adding premium tier that's alerts + ad free + feeling lucky that would take user to top result, which is a UTC page, re: https://breezethat.com/?q=UTC+time

I just tried breezethat and had to scroll past 6 ads (two screenfuls on my iPhone 10) to see a single result. I know ads are necessary but this is punitive.

Re: Alexandria Search

#45

There have been a few search engines out recently. I'm curious how people evaluate them quickly. I've realized my searching is basically optimized for google and the web that has grown up around it. Also, in 1998 I wasn't as aware of what was out there as I am now. It's pretty rare (even if its possible) that I do a search and come across a completely new site that I haven't heard of before, for anything nontrivial.…

I sEeU

Re: Alexandria Search

#46
Randomly picking a search that I needed for work today - searching for "pandas order by list" says that it has 44 results and it shows only 3:

- a Github issue for dask

- an article about panda populations

- some coronavirus article that happens to have an unrelated snippet of pandas code

Google obviously picks the relevant stackoverflow thread as the first response.

Re: Alexandria Search

#48
post #9

I think the fact that after a long while there are new search engines (Kagi was introduced very recently on HN, now this) should be a wake up call for Google - their search has lost some shine for quite a while. Hopefully something will come out of this - competition is good.

My first search on Alexandria was "UTC time". Google gives me the current time in UTC, which is all I needed. Alexandria gave me...a lot of links to click to find what I'm looking for. Google search is a lot better than people give it credit for.

Kagi does this. I have switched 100% to Kagi, not affiliated.

Re: Alexandria Search

#49
Thank you for building and sharing this. While many people rightly point out that this isn't a replacement for Google yet, the value of a shared working open source code base has been underestimated many times in the past.

I hope this is a project that grows to solve real needs in this space. However, even if it never makes it past this point, there is a chance someone will be inspired by this to construct their own version. Maybe in a different language with a different storage format or a different way of ranking results.

Thank you for sharing your work.

Re: Alexandria Search

#50
Why don't search engines have filters? Every single consumer retail website's search uses filters to help shoppers find something to buy. It is way more convenient than hoping the user can guess the magic search phrase to find the thing they're looking for (if they even know what that thing is).
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