Looking Back at 2021
Posted: 05 January 2022
2021 was a big year for us as we reached some considerable milestones, added new functionality, and joined many others in calling for better business practices and fairness in digital markets. As the world realises the damage done by surveillance capitalism people are increasingly looking to companies which act ethically. Based in the UK but serving users in almost every country, we are offering the world a genuine alternative to the biases of Google and Bing, as we continue to build the largest independent index of the open web.
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Gatekeeper Self-Preferencing and Co-operation in Search
Posted: 14 December 2021
The Coalition for Competitive Digital Markets, which we wrote about previously, has now grown to over 50 companies from 16 countries. Last week we wrote to EU MEPs, urging them to include and support stronger upfront rules for dominant “gatekeeper” firms in the upcoming Digital Markets Act. Collectively we are have advocated for more effective amendments to address the issues of interoperability, self-preferencing, default setting and bundling. These are issues that are important to all coalition members as we challenge Big Tech. Here we write about how these issues relate to search and highlight the obvious and more subtle ways in which the “gatekeepers” put up barriers to genuine alternatives like Mojeek.
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Mojeek Preference Settings: Your Results Page, Your Way
Posted: 09 December 2021
Mojeek helps you find useful destinations, information, and answers to questions on the Web. Like any tool, there are always ways to use it better. The second in this series of "How To" articles shows how you can tailor your Mojeek experience, so that you get the kind of results you’re looking for. In the first piece we looked at changing site language and using the available location options.
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Personal Data Industry: The New Tobacco?
Posted: 01 December 2021
Data it has often been said, is the new oil. The analogy has merits. It’s a new source of economic power. They both involve extraction and refinement. Both can be used to create many new and useful products. But whereas oil is extracted from the earth, data comes comes from many sources, and notably two types. We have impersonal data from systems, machines, documents, and the list goes on; hence the term Internet of Things. The second source is about you; your behaviour, words, photos, sentiments, expressions, movement and to cap it all your DNA. We call this personal data. If we chose to call impersonal data the new oil, what do we call personal data? Let’s call it the new tobacco. Like tobacco it’s unhealthy as sold and used.
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How Microsoft Sucks People In
Posted: 29 November 2021
At Mojeek we believe that consumers and businesses should have freedom to choose. With that freedom healthy and fair competition flourishes, and we all benefit. This is why we stand together with other challengers to Microsoft in a “Coalition for a Level Playing Field”; a new group at launch of 26 European IT businesses and 4 NGOs/Industry Bodies. Together we call on the EU and governments to support choice and competition for consumers, by taking action against Microsoft to level the playing field.
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How to Use the Mojeek Calculator
Posted: 23 November 2021
As part of our continuous improvement of Mojeek and its functions, we have recently added a calculator feature as part of the search engine. This calculator provides both simple and advanced mathematical functions in an easy-to-use way. The calculator can undertake basic calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; whilst also allowing for scientific operations such as trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions.
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A New Coalition for Competitive Digital Markets
Posted: 26 October 2021
In May 2021, Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission Executive Vice-President spoke about Europe's digital future and the need for the Digital Markets Act (DMA). She summarised with: "If we’re unhappy with one supermarket, we can just cross the street and go to another. It should be the same online. We work so that #BigTech can not lock us inside their world, and we can keep our choices open." There are smaller innovative companies that, like Mojeek, offer alternative business models and services. We have thus joined a new coalition of progressive technology companies who together call on the EU to carefully consider how it legislates for stronger rules on interoperability, bundling, and defaults in the DMA.
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In Defence of Online Anonymity
Posted: 25 October 2021
There is a prevalent perception, notably by those with power and celebrity status, that anonymity causes online abuse. Added to which, too many of today's societal problems are attributed to social media. An end to anonymity is usually accompanied by emotional arguments that focus only on the negatives. Most of the reports, lobbying, and reactions focus on the alleged harms of online anonymity. In this article, we present the counterargument.
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