<story><title>EU Open Web Search project kicked off</title><url>https://openwebsearch.eu/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>margarina72</author><text>Interesting to see the amount of negative comments.&lt;p&gt;Most of the negativity seems to come from the following points:&lt;p&gt;- EU-funded project cannot succeed in tech because previous EU-funded projects have failed in tech in the past (and generally government-funded project in tech are suspicious)&lt;p&gt;- Search is hard, and therefore it will fail&lt;p&gt;- The project is underfunded&lt;p&gt;Even if the points above can all be valid (though the obvious US-funded startup launched by a bunch of uni students seemed to have fared pretty well) it seems we are missing the point of this project.&lt;p&gt;The proposal is to contribute to the creation of open building blocks necessary to enable others (including private US companies) to make better search products.&lt;p&gt;Better search product are needed.&lt;p&gt;Shall we remember HN of some of the intense conversations that happened here about Google failing us:&lt;p&gt;- Google Search is Dying [1]&lt;p&gt;- Every Google result now looks like an ad [2]&lt;p&gt;- Google no longer producing high quality search results in significant categories [3]&lt;p&gt;So while, yes search is a hard topic, we should welcome initiatives aiming at improving the ground infrastructure needed to lower the barrier to entry on this subject and hope it will allow many companies to build better search products (or inspire other initiatives to contribute in similar and even more successful way)&lt;p&gt;1: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=30347719&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=30347719&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=22107823&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=22107823&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;3: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29772136&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29772136&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wbl</author><text>One reason search is hard is people are very motivated to game your system. That makes being transparent about how it works a fool&amp;#x27;s errand. It also isn&amp;#x27;t clear how the economic structure works: improving search relevance by x% is tremendously socially valuable, but probably makes Google&amp;#x27;s bottom line go up by a thousandth of x, and they have a very direct understanding of the connection. Without that money, how will this get the resources to succeed given the adversaries are learning from the people with a lot more?</text></comment>
<story><title>EU Open Web Search project kicked off</title><url>https://openwebsearch.eu/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>margarina72</author><text>Interesting to see the amount of negative comments.&lt;p&gt;Most of the negativity seems to come from the following points:&lt;p&gt;- EU-funded project cannot succeed in tech because previous EU-funded projects have failed in tech in the past (and generally government-funded project in tech are suspicious)&lt;p&gt;- Search is hard, and therefore it will fail&lt;p&gt;- The project is underfunded&lt;p&gt;Even if the points above can all be valid (though the obvious US-funded startup launched by a bunch of uni students seemed to have fared pretty well) it seems we are missing the point of this project.&lt;p&gt;The proposal is to contribute to the creation of open building blocks necessary to enable others (including private US companies) to make better search products.&lt;p&gt;Better search product are needed.&lt;p&gt;Shall we remember HN of some of the intense conversations that happened here about Google failing us:&lt;p&gt;- Google Search is Dying [1]&lt;p&gt;- Every Google result now looks like an ad [2]&lt;p&gt;- Google no longer producing high quality search results in significant categories [3]&lt;p&gt;So while, yes search is a hard topic, we should welcome initiatives aiming at improving the ground infrastructure needed to lower the barrier to entry on this subject and hope it will allow many companies to build better search products (or inspire other initiatives to contribute in similar and even more successful way)&lt;p&gt;1: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=30347719&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=30347719&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=22107823&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=22107823&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;3: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29772136&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29772136&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kazinator</author><text>Speaking of Google and ads; I witnessed a new low today.&lt;p&gt;My 3 going on 4 kid was watching a cartoon on Youtube: Curious George.&lt;p&gt;An ad popped up promoting some show, featuring foul language and sexual intercourse.&lt;p&gt;Yagoddabekidding.</text></comment>