Comment by iamleppert
4 years ago
I really want a search engine that works more like a database. I want to see why it returned the results it did, like an EXPLAIN syntax does for SQL queries. I want fine grain control of the actual query, and ability to sort the results by different facets.
I think there’s 100% a market for a new search engine that is geared toward the power user, the researcher.
Google hasn’t innovated their actual search engine in ways that actually benefit the user in years. The only changes they have done have been driven by a profit motive.
Yes. Search engines, web browser, etc should be made improved for such a purpose.
I also would want to have the feature like EXPLAIN and to use the other features of SQL such as ORDER BY, etc. (Even on Hacker News too, to be able to change sort order, I would prefer to list the comments in order by the date/time.)
Often, I would want to use SQL to search things that are not available as SQL, or even as CSV (which could be imported into a SQL database; SQLite command shell has this capability built-in).
I won't say this entirely solves the problem for researchers, but several posts here have pointed out that Duck Duck Go gives superior results in this case. I use DDG routinely, and only rarely do I need to go to Google for a search for some esoteric technical things (although I'm not certain Google actually does better).