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Fediverse @lemmy.world

DaseinPickle @leminal.space

10mo ago

is there a search engine for the fediverse?

Since big part of the web is drowning in AI junk, including Reddit, is there a good search engine to find answers in the fediverse?

30 comments

https://fedi-search.com/
- Thank you!

Have you tried searxng? Just switch them on in the settings:

The built-in search function works quite well I would say
- The fediverse has a built-in search engine?
  I can only comment on my experience searching for communities in lemmy and people to follow on mastadon, but in both cases I am not sure I'd say "works quite well" would describe my experience.
  But also that's not what I think OP was talking about.
  They want a search engine for a random fact like google. It's been long true that you need to add "reddit" to the end of any google search to find the info you needed.
  It'd be nice to have a fediverse alternative.
  
  I can only comment on my experience searching for communities in lemmy and people to follow on mastadon, but in both cases I am not sure I’d say “works quite well” would describe my experience.
  For communities, https://lemmyverse.net/communities is probably better.
  I use the built-in search engine for posts, and usually the results are relevant and accurate
- Oh, the single, shared built-in search function in mastodon, pixelfed, misskey, lemmy, friendica, peertube, diaspora, castopod, writefreely, &c?
  Please, the fediverse is more than [platform you're currently using].
- The built-in search function works quite well I would say
  The UX is a bit funky, but the results are good.
  _Anti _{Commercial-AI} _license _(CC _BY-NC-SA _4.0)
  
  The disclaimer at the end of your comment doesn't render properly. At least, on Thunder

Lemmy search works pretty well on larger servers, and they're indexed by major web search engines.
The microblog side of things is worse, with Mastodon long having near-useless search because it might "encourage negative social dynamics" or some such. Some other software, such as Akkoma has had better search, and Mastodon has recently improved somewhat for accounts that opt into being searchable. Mastodon directs search engines not to index most pages.
Some people get very upset about attempts to build general-purpose fediverse search tools.
- At times the mastodon people sound like Alex Jones, only it's "techbros" instead of "globalists"
  
  I think it's a small, but very loud minority who have unrealistic expectations about how other people will use data they share in a manner that's inherently rather public. I kind of see where they're coming from, but ActivityPub with open federation doesn't work that way.

Kagi has a "Fediverse Forums" lens.

There's also sepiasearch.org for PeerTube videos.

Your favourite search engine + "site:your-instance.net" should do okay hopefully?
- The point is to search the whole fediverse, not just one instance.

Also Kagi has a fediverse lens

There are various websites that catalog all the instances they can find, but I can't remember the one I used back in the day an don't know if they search communities too or just instances

30 comments