15 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
15 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
# Wiby
|
|
|
|
Wiby is a [minimalist](minimalism.md) non-corporate [web](www.md) [search engine](search_engine.md) for old-style non-[bloated](bloat.md) (web 1.0, "[smol web](smol_internet.md)") websites with its custom [index](index.md). Searching on wiby will yield small, simple websites, mostly non-interactive, static [HTML](html.md) personal/hobby sites, small community sites and obscure weird sites -- this kind of searching is not only [fun](fun.md), adventurous and nostalgic [90s](90s.md) like experience, but it actually leads to finding useful information which on corporate search engines like [Google](google.md) or [Bing](bing.md) get buried under billions of useless noise sites and links to "content platforms" like [YouTube](youtube.md) and [reddit](reddit.md). We highly recommend searching on wiby.
|
|
|
|
Wiby's relative success (and success of similar engines and smaller sites in general) can possibly be attributed to increasing shittiness of [Google](google.md) and other mainstream engines which more and more suffer by the capitalist [SEO](seo.md) disaster. Wiby may be one of the first indicators of the days of Google's search monopoly finally coming to an end.
|
|
|
|
It can be accessed at https://wiby.me and https://wiby.org (there is a low res picture of a lighthouse of Cape Spear on the frontpage for some reason, in the past there used to be [ASCII art](ascii_art.md) of lighthouse with initials `jgs`, probably standing for Joan G. Stark). Of course, no [JavaScript](js.md) is needed! Clicking "surprise me" on wiby is an especially entertaining activity, you never know what comes at you. A site dedicated to identifying historical bottles? Ice chewers forum? A list of longest domain names? Yes, this is the kind of stuff you'll get, and more.
|
|
|
|
The engine doesn't automatically crawl the whole web, it instead works by users submitting links, the admin approving them and a bot potentially crawling these sites to a small depth. Be sure to contribute quality links to improve the database!
|
|
|
|
Wiby appears to have been launched in October 2017 and built by a sole programmer who remains anonymous and accepts donations.
|
|
|
|
On July 8, 2022 wiby became even more amazing by **being released as [free (as in freedom) software](free_software.md)** under [GPLv2](gpl.md) (https://github.com/wibyweb/wiby/)! It works on the [LEMP](lemp.md) stack. See http://wiby.me/about/guide.html. (The database/index of sites though seems to remain non-shared and [proprietary](proprietary.md).)
|
|
|
|
A similar search engine seems to be https://search.marginalia.nu/. |