[bongobingo1]

Is the end goal to ween onto their own index or will the search space always be dominated by some major upstream players?

[burkaman]

I'd be surprised if that isn't their eventual goal, but I don't think it's really possible to deliver the kind of general-purpose engine they want with a team of ~5-10. Hopefully if they're successful and grow they can expand their own indexes.

You can try them at https://www.teclis.com/ and https://tinygem.org/.

[eitland]

I guess it depends on how much traction they get, both by consumers and also with websites.

AFAIK some websites actively or passively block everyone except Google.