Brighton-based search engine Mojeek which provides alternative to Google reaches major milestone

A search engine with roots in Brighton, which provides internet users with an alternative to Google, has reached four billion indexed pages – a major milestone for the company.
Colin Hayhurst, CEO of MojeekColin Hayhurst, CEO of Mojeek
Colin Hayhurst, CEO of Mojeek

Mojeek said it was a first time a search engine that does not track its users had reached this goal.

The company currently indexes over two million webpages a day – and this is set to increase as it installs and turns on new server capacity.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Colin Hayhurst, CEO at Mojeek, said: “Genuine search alternatives to Google are needed.

“With our own index we provide very different search results and without tracking users at all.

“All other international search engines track users and are based in the USA, Russia or China and as such reflect a national bias.”

The company has also recently released an updated, browser-like app for both iOS and Android.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mojeek was based at The Sussex Innovation Centre at the University of Sussex campus before it moved to remote-working, and is a member of Wired Sussex.

Mr Hayhurst said Mojeek was the only company that provides search results independent from those of ‘Big Tech’.

“The choices we make are massively influenced by the search filters and feeds of Big Tech companies,” he said.

“Alternatives for how we choose are needed more than ever and particularly so in the 2020s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Unlike other smaller companies we have our own general index and search engine.

“Mojeek also does not track you, nor collect data.

“When tracking is not used, the ranking of results will be obtained using objective factors.

“Mojeek is arguably unique in this respect.

“Google and Bing rank results based on data that it has collected or inferred about you.

“These inferences can come from cookies, aggregated data and machine learning (AI) algorithms.

“Tracking, data collection, and ranking practices by Big Tech has led to the prevalence of what is now recognised as surveillance capitalism.”