Mozdex Open Source Search Engine – Spotlight #1
I’ve been following Mozdex for about a year or so after meeting its owner, Byron Miller, on SitePoint Forums and being amazed with some of the offerings that Byron was working on at the time. Mozdex was one of the first engines to launch using an open search system based around different open source technologies. The base of Mozdex is Nutch Project, an open source search group of developers. Additionally, Byron originally used the DMOZ Open Directory Project as a starting point to kick off Mozdex’s web index – hence the name, MOZilla inDEX.
In addition to being built upon open source technology, Mozdex has also opened itself up to developers by offering OpenSearch and OpenSearch RSS to site owners and programmers who want to integrate Mozdex search results into their projects. Besides offering open search, Mozdex also serves its search results in clusters. Try a clustered search for “games” or “checks” and you’re more than likely going to be pleased with the differentiation of search results on the right side of the page.
Mozdex’s search philosophy “Some people may say that providing the insight into the results will offer cheaters a better way to get higher ranks, but our view is it allows us to openly discover and communicate new methods and algorithms that give a better view and representation that is less fallible to cheaters.” With the open source community behind him, Byron may reach his goal.
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Spotlight of 500 Search Engines – Search Engine Journal is reviewing 500 search engines this year to help share the spotlight that the larger engines enjoy. If you represent a search engine or know of one that should be reviewed, email us with search engines you would like to see in the Spotlight of 500 Search Engines. Please mail us the search engine URL, description, your contact information, and any traits or offerings which make the search engine special. With a goal of 500 search engines to review in one year, we’ll need all the help we can get.
