METASEARCH 3.0

[mat-1]

At the current moment, metasearch is not profitable. This is a massive problem, as I like money. Also, someone online told me making things for free forever is not sustainable, so thus I present:
METASEARCH 3.0

Current implemented features:

• Google Analytics, to help us optimize and streamline the user experience
• Advertisements from our sponsors, to make sure metasearch can stay sustainable for the foreseeable future
• reCAPTCHA v2, to stop bots from illegally stealing my server's processing power and bandwidth

This pull request is only the start of this update for metasearch, other planned features include:

• AI
• Blockchain
• Paid subscription (that shows less ads)
• NFTs
• AI
• Metaverse

There is a staging instance for this update at https://staging.s.matdoes.dev. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

[Shrecknt]

lgtm

[mrcbax]

As a daily user of metasearch2, and a proud proponent of privacy. I see this as a blow to the metasearch ecosystem. I strongly encourage you to reconsider your shift in profit model.

[CuriousCodingCanadian]

Just don't do this to /buttons, I abuse that :3

[HonbraDev]

[TheOnlyWayUp]

A highly profitable next step would be to follow the footsteps of DuckDuckGo in partnering with BigTech.

[DuckySoLucky]

lgtm (i have no idea what this does but the money is mentioned so lgtm)

[NotNite]

looks terrible to me 🚀

[theogbob]

This would kill the project and defeats the entire point, theres plenty of other meta search engines like searxng that are objectively better and arent trying to implement changes that compromise privacy and are trying to go for profit, implementing changes like that removes the point of using a metasearch engine and having privacy from using google. I can assure you will just waste your time since you will end up killing the project with changes like these.

[mat-1]

@theogbob and others, first of all, thank you for voicing your concerns.

I understand that this update may adversely affect the workflow of a small minority of users, but it is necessary for the future of the project, as there are no developers who will work for free. We conducted extensive research to determine the best ways of going about this, and we discovered that the amount of advertising on a website is directly proportional to the amount of advertising revenue generated. If you are bothered by advertising, don't worry, the paid subscription will be releasing very soon.

As for privacy, I see no issue here. Google and our other advertising partners have a long-standing reputation of safeguarding their users' personal data from hackers and thieves. Now about the problem of SearxNG, we do have a plan for addressing it in the future. Our plan is to purchase the maintainers' rights to their project, and eventually merging it into metasearch and deprecating SearxNG.

There is no current plan to abort the development of metasearch 3.0. I've gone ahead and updated this branch with the new features from the master branch, as it will likely be merged soon.

Thanks for your understanding,
- the metasearch team

[RacoonDog]

The current implementation presents a significant accessibility issue: it is difficult for users to distinguish between advertisements and legitimate search results (see attached image). This can lead to confusion and impact the user experience.

To enhance clarity and improve usability, we recommend either providing a clearer visual distinction between advertisements and legitimate results or making the 'Ad' marker more prominent and readable.

I have attached a mockup demonstrating how the latter approach could be implemented, with a bolder and more distinct 'Ad' marker that will allow users to easily identify sponsored content, ensuring a more transparent and accessible interface.

[theogbob]

@mat-1
It's not about googles data safety which debately isn't good but that's a different topic, it's the fact using a meta search engine is ment to provide privacy from providers like google who sell your data to advertises and use it for there own purposes and your changes basically are the opposite of what a meta search engine was supposed to be, a way to use search engines like google and maintain a level of privacy by not directly interacting with there URLs & apis.

[notboeing747]

Me when I shoot myself in the foot

[theogbob]

Me when I shoot myself in the foot

describes this PR in 1 sentance

[theogbob]

I was informed by another use that this PR might be a troll so I really hope it is 😭

[tympanicblock61]

I was informed by another use that this PR might be a troll so I really hope it is 😭

It is

[RacoonDog]

@mat-1 It's not about googles data safety which debately isn't good but that's a different topic, it's the fact using a meta search engine is ment to provide privacy from providers like google who sell your data to advertises and use it for there own purposes and your changes basically are the opposite of what a meta search engine was supposed to be, a way to use search engines like google and maintain a level of privacy by not directly interacting with there URLs & apis.

While we acknowledge that maintaining a certain level of privacy is important to our users, it’s crucial to understand that without a reliable and consistent source of revenue, the long-term viability of this project cannot be ensured. Balancing privacy concerns with the financial sustainability of our operations is essential, and we must consider all available options to ensure the continued growth and success of this initiative.

If you have any suitable alternatives to Google analytics and Google ads that might offer comparable benefits while offering enhanced data privacy, I’m confident Mat would be open to discussing them.

[notboeing747]

we should merge this 🗣🗣🗣

[Zickles]

Lgtm ily mat you make the best codes that exist on earth, do not let these fools boss you around

[RagingEnby]

quite frankly i dont understand the hate. i like this more because it reminds me of google so im more familiar with it