Phase One Phase Two

The Collective Mind Search Engine Project


The Search Engine Project:

The Collective Mind Search Engine is an open source distributive web search engine based somewhat on concept of gnutella. The Collective Mind Search Engine project's purpose is to create a noncommercial alternative to a centralized, for-profit portal/search engine.


The pinnacles of the Collective Mind project:

  • The information is distributed net wide.
  • No one person has ownership of the data.
  • The system must be designed to minimize the possibility of commodification of search results.
  • No company could take control of the Collective Mind and claim the service to be their own.
  • No hierarchy--there will be no one database controlling the results.
  • The end user must be able to modify search results to his or her own taste.

How the search engine works:

The user is the judge of what content he/she wants added to his/her local area of search. This will happen simple by bookmarking the page. Once the page is bookmarked it will be added to the local database and be available net wide via the p2p network.
As one does a search he/she will have the ability to grab results from all over the internet as the program searches the net for quality matches from other databases.

Why do we need another search engine:

It is desperately needed. If you have an eye on the search engine industry, you will understand. At this moment, there is not a single "clean" search engine still in existence. All of them, even the beloved Google, have paid listings seeping into their search results. It is the nature of for profit institutions to do what it takes to make money, they are going to do what it takes to stay economically viable.

Principles:

All data is collected via a local bot sitting on the desktop of the end user.
Everyone plugged into the system will have the ability to set their own algorithm.
The database is always alive and will vary depending on who is online. As I see it now, the algorithm will be made of variable settings of:

  • popularity (not link, but surf popularity)
  • key word density analysis

These two factors could be modified by the user so that he or she controls the search results and can pick the settings he or she likes. I see two groups that the system needs to be insulated from: search engine promoters who will work to manipulate search results from corruption the system and the corporate influence. I believe it will be relatively easy to isolate garbage content. There will be the ability to filter out bad nodes and a filtering mechanism built into the system. The bigger danger is the commandeering of the search network by an entity seeking to grab a ready made audience and manipulate the system to drive traffic and dollars to their portal. We need to do everything we can to ensure that does not happen.

Vision:

This system has the potential to replace a good percentage of the searches done on the major portals (Yahoo, msn, Google, etc.) and will ensure that there will always be a nondiscriminatory, free, and true search system that is as removed as possible from the effects of PPC (pay per click) and all the rest.

What the project needs:

Talent! We need skilled programmers who are willing to contribute to this noble cause. Please contact me if you are interested in becoming part of the Collective Mind project.
Contact the Grumpy Old Man