Official Mojeek Blog

No-Tracking Search, How Does it Work?

Posted: 04 May 2021

Mojeek is one of seven international real web search engines and the only one outside of USA, Russia, and China. As the only one of those that does not track, Mojeek offers unique and important benefits to its global users. Search with surveillance was born in Silicon Valley and flowers in Russia and China. Search without surveillance was born in the UK, at Mojeek, in 2006. Here is the Mojeek perspective on search engines really work and what goes into building a real search engine.

After The Breach: Get Ready for the Next One

Posted: 22 April 2021

Almost every week we learn that another company, government, or non-governmental organisation has suffered a data breach. The way in which systems are built in this current age means that there is much less of a focus on creating a solid, well-defended infrastructure than there is on acquiring new users and getting a product out there. The technology sector’s obsession with data, tracking, analytics, and conversion funnels has fuelled these disasters. Software security is relegated beneath the relentless focus on growth and engagement.

Frictionless Donations Support an Open Web

Posted: 07 April 2021

One of the long-standing fictions that many of us have told ourselves about the Web is that the current funding model, that of surveillance advertising, has served us well. In fact, digital advertising has come to be dominated by Google, Facebook, and Amazon, all of which engage in data-harvesting practices that undermine both our privacy and autonomy.

To Track, or Not to Track? 15 Years Striving for Search Engine Independence

Posted: 18 March 2021

How can I get my website to rank high on Google? That was the challenge that confronted Marc Smith, like many other developers back in 2001. It’s a question now tackled by hundreds of millions in digital marketing. It has spawned new branches of marketing such as SEO and content marketing. In Marc’s case he was developing a shareware game for his friend as a favour, and as a way to learn and hone his skills. Little did he know, back then, the lifelong quest that this would draw him into. Figuring out how to get the website for his game to rank highly on Google led Marc down a fateful path and the creation of his own search engine. That search engine Mojeek is now one of very few genuine alternatives to Google.

Why We Support ORG

Posted: 22 February 2021

In the last 15 years ORG have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to lobby on domestic and international issues on behalf of people living in the UK. Campaigns undertaken by the Open Rights Group have involved cases which sought to defend the right to parody, prevent the giving of undue power to Internet Service Providers, and fight against unlawful mass surveillance. They feature amongst their founding members technology journalist and civil liberties activist, Danny O’Brien, and science fiction author and activist, Cory Doctorow.

Popping Filter Bubbles in Safari

Posted: 10 February 2021

In two previous articles, we took a simple a search query and illustrated how even queries that should have a reasonably clear and obvious answer push people into bubbles that affect the information that they have access to. At Mojeek we believe that one of the greatest tools that anyone has when it comes to puncturing filter bubbles is their browser, and that by using multiple search engines you can greatly enhance the ability of this tool to do that job. Here we discuss how to apply the method we’ve outlined for Firefox and Vivaldi to improve Apple’s native browser, Safari.

Stacking the Odds for Alternatives

Posted: 02 February 2021

The shutdown in January of Parler was a stark example of how emerging companies can be vulnerable to Big Tech. In a reaction, perhaps understandably to events in the US Capitol, Parler was taken down by AWS (part of Amazon), and removed from the app stores of both Apple and Google. AWS’ claim was that this was a response to the lack of content moderation by Parler, after repeated requests and a violation of their Terms of Service. Others have written at length about whether that’s right or wrong, and a legal case ensued.

Big Data is Watching You

Posted: 21 January 2021

There is no one book more referenced when it comes to our high-technology surveillance reality than George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eric Arthur Blair (Orwell being his pen name) died on the 21st of January 1950. And so on January 1st, with more than 70 years since his passing, all of his works lost their copyrighted status in the UK and European Union. His most famous book, along with his many brilliant works, are now in the public domain. To celebrate this fact, and to explore this deep and enduring relationship between writings on both state and private company surveillance, we thought it would be good to pose the question: what did Orwell get right?