[kwi]

Hmm, from my own experience - yes, there is alternative open search engines, and there are a lot actually. But did you ever try one on your own? Most of them are a nightmare to setup and are atrociously slow as soon as you get a few thousands entries... Sometimes, it's definitely worth it to externalize some expertise. Search is definitely not easy to masterize.

(And I was a user of indextank when they shutdown)

[nestlequ1k]

Agreed, I think there's a good middle ground. Lots of hosted APIs use open technologies, and I'm paying for the convenience of someone handling everything for me, without being locked into a single provider who will likely get acquihired and shut down at some point.