Search Engines

Are you tired of finding information from the same few websites?

If you type "learn git" into duckduckgo, the first results (as of time of writing) are from atlassain.com, w3schools.com, microsoft.com, freecodecamp.org, and codeacademy.com. These websites are pretty helpful results for someone learning how to use git. Also, these are big websites that have probably invested lots of effort in their SEO strategies to rank high in search results. Sometimes, I like to spice things up a little.

Try typing "learn git" into these search engines:

Ok, I'll admit, most of the results are not as relevant as the ones from duckduckgo. But it can be refreshing to find things that seem more... personal? For example, look at The curious coder's guide to git by Matthew Brett. I found this result after searching for "learn git" on marginalia, as the 11th result. On this site, the author not only tells his own journey of learning git, but also provides an amazing, clear, and super informative guide on how to learn it.

I've heard that social media have captured users' attention, like casinos, by providing unpredictable rewards. For me, using smaller search engines is an activity of unpredictable reward—most sites are not too relevant, but every once in a while, I find something that's relevant, helpful, and personal, which is a true gem in today's internet. And I'm willing to continue gambling to find more of these sites.

One day, I would like to try making my own search engine, and use it to find sites that I couldn't usually find elsewhere!