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by Lyngbakr 2 hours ago
Something I couldn't find info about is how this is funded, given that it is ad free and doesn't sell user data. Is it supported by a nonprofit organisation or just paid for out of the developer's pocket?
2 comments

Via professional access to their infrastructure via its API

https://xonaly.com/ethical-private-search-engine/

How is Xonaly sustained? Xonaly remains free and private for users by offering professional access to its infrastructure through the Xonaly API. This allows developers and organizations to build applications on top of a truly independent search engine, while supporting the long-term growth of the project.

This is a critical piece of information to convince me to switch to this.

I'm quite interested though!

Also, what's the context of "Built in Canada"? What's the point of mentioning this? Should I expect the results to be better for Canadian content?

I’d guess because Canadians often rely on American tech infrastructure by default, and current events are shining a light on the vulnerability inherent in that arrangement. It’s a line that speaks to a potential Canadian user base who doesn’t make a distinction among what’s tangled up in their web use.
It seems like it is funded by creator for now. It seems like they intend to fund it via professional acesa to its infrastructure.

Here is the bit that talks about it

https://xonaly.com/ethical-private-search-engine/

> How is Xonaly sustained? > Xonaly remains free and private for users by offering professional access to its infrastructure through the Xonaly API. This allows developers and organizations to build applications on top of a truly independent search engine, while supporting the long-term growth of the project.

This is the founder: https://xonaly.com/about-the-founder/

I guess he’s psyched about being Canadian? Anyway, nothing about funding. The privacy-first stance is certainly welcome.

The Google matches for this name are inconsistent and suspicious. Did the LLM just pick a random name?
launching this on Canada Day (July 1) would be pretty cool
> Built in Canada

It’s a trend now to decouple from US, so much hype about it but I don’t think it will materialize in reality.