Thinking Through The Future of Web Search

0.0 Table of Contents

• 0.1 Please
• 0.2 Phoebe?
• 0.3 Characteristics
• 0.4 Philosophical Characteristics
  • 0.4.1 Phoebe will be pervasively open
  • 0.4.2 Phoebe will be privacy centric
  • 0.4.3 Phoebe will be people centric
• 0.5 Human Augmentation: The Foundational Characteristic
• 0.6 More to Come
• 0.7 Additional Articles
  • 0.7.1 Articles
    • Human Augmentation in Web Search
    • The Trust Network
    • Privacy Centric
    • Radically Open
  • 0.7.2 Blog Posts
  • 0.7.3 Other Resources
• 0.8 Footnotes

0.1 Please

I'm pushing these thoughts into the public sphere for two primary reasons:

(1) To facilitate a discussion around web search in which I can learn from others. I believe what I write here has solid merits but I also believe that we do our best work when we are challenged, encouraged, and refocused by others.

(2) To create a community of individuals who are interested in the future of web search. Particularly individuals who are interested in actively participating in this future.

Note that you needn't be part of the second for me to value your input on the first. I don't want to miss out on wisdom from those who have other commitments/priorities than this project.

Discussion Link: https://hachyderm.io/@davidshq/109795901908794239

0.2 Phoebe?

Saying "the next search engine", "the future of web search", etc. is a mouthful. Throughout these documents I'm going to refer to this theoretical search engine as "Phoebe" for brevity sake. This doesn't necessarily indicate the final name of the engine but is a useful shorthand for now.

0.3 Characteristics

Phoebe has several distinguishing characteristics. The majority of these fall into the category of "philosophical" commitments. These are commitments Phoebe makes not because they will increase revenue¹ nor because they will significantly increase market share but because I believe they facilitate creating a better world for all of us to live in.

Then there is the "foundational" characteristic - this is what makes Phoebe different from other search engines. It is the reason Phoebe has the potential to unseat Google where others have failed.² Lets take a moment to look at both types of characteristics in the sections below.

0.4 Philosophical Characteristics

These characteristics are not "essential" to Phoebe's success but they are essential to my vision for a better search engine. These characteristics may help Phoebe to gain market share but they are not the "meat" of Phoebe's value proposition.

0.4.1 Phoebe will be pervasively open

• Open Source - under a permissive license.
• Open Data - non-PII (personally identifiable information) will be available to the public.
• Open Algorithms - including all core algorithms - e.g. results ranking.

0.4.2 Phoebe will be privacy centric

• Individuals should be able to search anonymously or to explicitly choose to participate in the collaborative aspects of the engine (and to move between one mode and the other at will).
• Phoebe will be designed to minimize the collection of PII³ even when individuals choose to participate in the collaborative aspects of the engine.

0.4.3 Phoebe will be people centric

• Phoebe will facilitate financial and relational opportunities for its users with a special commitment to the overlooked and underrepresented. This will occur through:
  1. significant profit sharing with users who participate in human augmentation aspects of the engine.
  2. by allowing individuals to demonstrate expertise in specific knowledge areas without traditional credentials or experience.
• Phoebe will exemplify high standards of ethical conduct in its relationship to employees, putting people above profits.⁴

0.5 Human Augmentation: The Foundational Characteristic

Phoebe seeks to bring a synergy between machine and human capabilities. Machines are able to deliver reasonable search results to many queries - but humans are capable of delivering exponentially better results.

Phoebe will leverage the best methods of information retrieval through automated/mechanical means but it will also integrate active⁵ human curation / collaboration. Users will be able to actively contribute to the ranking of search results. Expect to see a lot more on what this involves in future articles.

0.6 More to Come

Much of what I've written here may raise more questions than it answers. I don't anticipate that 0.4.1 or 0.4.2 will raise many questions (feel free to prove me wrong) but I do expect 0.5. to raise questions. For example: "Human augmentation (collaborative search) has been tried in the past (and failed) - what will make Phoebe any different?"

Similarly, I expect 0.4.3 to raise some eyebrows resulting in questions such as:

• "How will Phoebe produce revenue?"
• "What percentage exactly will be committed to profit sharing?"
• "How can Phoebe ensure this helps the underrepresented and overlooked?"

To keep this document relatively short I haven't touched on these as well as numerous other topics but look forward to doing so in the future. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts, questions, and concerns!

Discussion Link: https://hachyderm.io/@davidshq/109795901908794239

0.7 Additional Resources

0.7.1 Articles

The following articles are part of this series and provide additional insight into how Phoebe will work:

• Human Augmentation in Web Search
• The Trust Network
• Privacy Centric
• Radically Open

0.7.2 Blog Posts

• 21-03-2023 - For Teachers
• 28-02-2023 - For the Long Haul

0.7.3 Other Resources

• A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Search Engines
• Awesome Search Engines

0.8 Footnotes

Footnotes

1. In fact, several of these commitments will result in Phoebe being less profitable in one sense (for a small number of stakeholders) but more profitable in another sense (for humanity at large). ↩

2. Unseating Google and delivering a significantly superior search experience is not a simple, straightforward task - there are many complexities involved. In one sense there is no silver bullet to search - no one, simple thing that can drastically improve search. On the other hand, I believe that there is a fundamental ingredient missing from contemporary search engines that is the necessary characteristic for delivering a superior search experience and unseating the current incumbent. In this sense there is a silver bullet to search - it is simple at a high level. However "the devil is in the details" as they say and this high-level simplicitly requires significant complexity at the implementation level. ↩

3. Personally Identifiable Information ↩

4. This is not saying that Phoebe will not be profitable but that it will not sacrifice people on the altar of profits. ↩

5. Most search engines currently integrate passive human interactions into their ranking algorithms. For example, they may track which results users click on, how long they spend on a page, etc. While Phoebe may allow passive contributions if a user desires to share such data, Phoebe will be much more focused on receiving actively and intentionally curated data from users. ↩