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I'm Starting A Search Engine For The Fediverse (lemmy.ca)

submitted 11 months ago by lautan@lemmy.ca to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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Hey everyone,

This isn't an announcement, just wanted peoples thoughts on this.

I think everyone knows searching the fediverse can be better. Googling doesn't work too well, etc. So I wanted to do my part and help out.

Indexing all posts, etc is quite a lot to handle, so I wanted to start small and just focus on video search. I've started indexing videos from Peertube and other video websites. (Even YouTube but this could be removed to just focus on independent sites)

I know Peertube has their own search engine for videos. I will be reaching out to them. Compared to my site I'm planning it'll have other video sources and be easier to use.

So that leads to feedback from you guys.

What do you think about indexing videos posted on the fediverse and other independent platforms?
Are there similar services?
Am I just wasting my time?

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[-] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 32 points 11 months ago

I found FediSearch, and also this post basically saying that a fediverse search engine would just be used as a tool by trolls.

[+] ggsu7@futurology.today -11 points 11 months ago

>muh trolls

God shut up please. Why do you have to ruin something amazing like searching the entire fediverse with a meaningless arguments about muh trolls.

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

But they are correct. There are vulnerable groups of people who have a harassment risk against them. We share the fediverse with others, be mindful of that. Making a search engine or an archiver for lemmy is such a good idea with how it functions! but for the wider fediverse..... that's just directly contradictory to its culture unless it can be opted in by instance and users

[-] rglullis@communick.news 10 points 11 months ago

There are vulnerable groups of people who have a harassment risk against them.

People that are at risk for what they write on the public internet should be protected and empowered by having better privacy tools, not by pretending that they can have a "safe space" on the public internet.

There is no such thing as privacy on the internet. The Fediverse makes it seem that it mitigates the surveillance problem by spreading the information around and not having it under the control of one single large entity, but the truth is that the Fediverse makes it actually easier for dedicated malicious actors to collect data and reach their targets.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

Exactly. If you're worried about someone searching for your post then you should not be posting it online (or at least ensuing you use an account that's anonymous enough that it can't be associated with you). If you want private chats then set up a group in matrix or signal!