Our Site Search Increases Our Editorial and Informational Independence
Relying on third parties is relying on external corporate interests and/or judgement of self-serving, opinionated 'knowledge barons' (like those who manipulate social control media to advance their ideological leanings/worldview)
7 months ago we said "We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available" and back in January we explained why something like DMOZ is sorely needed in a Web with so much spam and slop (or search engines/news syndicators that link to so much spam and slop). Thankfully we no longer depend on any third parties for site search; for a while we were depending on bookmark managers and browser histories to find our old articles. Now we can search our archives quickly and easily. Improvements are still being made (even today) and the search facility already gets used hundreds of times per day.
Technological autonomy (or independence) is a subject we did many articles and videos about in 2020-2022. We explained that there are limits, even for those who host from home, as ISPs are a "necessary evil" both in residential settings and in datacentres. Wireless meshes have many practical limitations, including speed. Your services (such as Web sites) probably aren't limited to a few hops from your desk (or nearby homes), so you'd rely on undersea cables and backbones like JANET (for the northwest of England).
Part of the "journey" in this site involves leading by example or teaching things; we're not an "educational site" per se, but if we can teach more people to adopt RSS feeds and reject social control media, then we're probably getting somewhere. We try to avoid hypocrisy*. If we convince more people to be Free software 'purists' for purely pragmatic reasons (such as security/privacy), then we're heading in the right direction.
Implementing our search facility is a long-term investment in this era of "information warfare"**. Never trust Google (or GAFAM at large; "Countries Need Digital Independence"). Not even once. Many people who believed they can trust Google or Google was a "friend" came to regret it for more than a single reason. █
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* Only years ago Microsoft Lunduke told people to boycott YouTube. Now he's boosting YouTube, then moaning: "Hey @YouTube @YouTubeCreators Is there some reason why you are blocking ALL comments on this video? So far there have been 100 comments made (in the first 28 minutes of the video being live)... and they all disappear as fast as people post them."
So he embraces the thing he tells other people to boycott. Foolish, opportunistic hypocrite. Then he's reminded why he decided to boycott this in the first place.
** Yes, it is an actual term! Nothing "edgy" about it. Make your own coffee, don't trust what others put in your coffee.
