Marginalia Search
Independent open-source search engine that favors small, non-commercial websites and personal blogs.
HN commenters recommend it for surfacing blogs and small, non-commercial sites made by real people1234, and for finding obscure pages other engines don't show.56 The most common caveat is that its index is much smaller than Google's7, and results for specific queries can be only loosely related.8
Why people recommend it
Small web discovery · 3
Surfaces blogs, IndieWeb and non-commercial sites written by real people instead of SEO content.
“it really is a breath of fresh air.”
“it does achieve its stated goal: of resurfacing real people on the internet.”
Show 1 more
“a small OSS search engine I have been using more and more theese days. I find it great to find IndieWeb / Small Web content.”
Obscure finds · 3
Finds niche and obscure pages, including old personal sites, that other engines miss.
“Bonus points to Marginalia for finding the obscure things Brave doesn't surface.”
“Sometimes I use Marginalia's”
Show 1 more
“Marginalia had fascinating results about biology but only tangentially related Nanoclaw results”
Open source · 2
The engine is open source, and its code is on GitHub for others to reuse.
“a small OSS search engine I have been using more and more theese days. I find it great to find IndieWeb / Small Web content.”
“reusing https://github.com/MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch for some of the core engine”
Public documentation · 1
The project documents publicly how it built its search engine.
“I especially appreciate Marginalia for publicly documenting as much about building a search engine as they have”
Redesigned site · 1
One user prefers the redesigned site to the old version.
“It's a very nice site now. I prefer it better than old version.”
Caveats and dissent
Smaller index · 2
The index is much smaller than Google's, so it is not a full replacement.
“is an indie search engine that prioritizes small websites and non-commercial content.”
“it does achieve its stated goal: of resurfacing real people on the internet.”
Off-target results · 1
For a specific query, it returned only tangentially related results and missed the project's GitHub repo and homepages.
“Marginalia had fascinating results about biology but only tangentially related Nanoclaw results”
Dead links · 1
Most results from its Vintage Web search are dead blogs and old .edu pages.
“Sometimes I use Marginalia's”
JavaScript redesign · 1
The new site uses JavaScript, but the old version is still available.
“It's a very nice site now. I prefer it better than old version.”
Temporary funding · 1
One commenter says its NLNet funding is temporary.
“it really is a breath of fresh air.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“I use for ad detection in Marginalia Search”
Threads where it came up
- Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think 3 mentions
- Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi 2 mentions
- I Built a 500k-Domain Search Engine for Makers in a Weekend for $10 1 mention
- Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse 1 mention
- Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo? 1 mention
- Xonaly – Canada's Independent Search Engine 1 mention
Also written as Marginalia. Data: marginalia-search.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 15
“Sometimes I use Marginalia's”
“Bonus points to Marginalia for finding the obscure things Brave doesn't surface.”
“reusing https://github.com/MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch for some of the core engine”
“Also worth mentioning the goat:”
“It's a very nice site now. I prefer it better than old version.”
“a small OSS search engine I have been using more and more theese days. I find it great to find IndieWeb / Small Web content.”
“it really is a breath of fresh air.”
“Marginalia had fascinating results about biology but only tangentially related Nanoclaw results”
“it does achieve its stated goal: of resurfacing real people on the internet.”
“I especially appreciate Marginalia for publicly documenting as much about building a search engine as they have”
“Marginalia data is physically consolidated into the same infra that we use for small web results in our SERP”
“is an indie search engine that prioritizes small websites and non-commercial content.”
“Marginalia is great.”
“I love your https://marginalia-search.com :)”
“corfu+marginalia+vertico+embark+orderless is the standard completion stack now”