I’m Building a Search Engine Because I Think Search Gave Up on Users

Search is one of the most important tools on the internet, but users have very little control over it.

The same few companies decide how billions of people find information every day. Their algorithms are powerful, but they are also a black box. You cannot easily change how results are ranked, what sources are prioritized, or what matters most to you.

I started building Slick because I wanted to see what search would look like if users were actually in control.

Slick is an independent search engine with its own index, built from scratch. Instead of forcing everyone to use the same ranking system, Slick focuses on customization. Users can adjust rankings, personalize results, and decide what matters to them.

Building a search engine has been a much bigger challenge than I expected. Crawling the web, storing billions of pieces of information, fighting spam, and making results actually useful are all difficult problems.

But I think search is worth rethinking.

I’m curious:

What is the biggest thing you would change about modern search engines?

Better results? More control? Less tracking? Something else?