Author: Nicole, Chasey, 菠菜菠菜 | Research Consortia - Researcher
Presearch
Keywords: General Information, X to Earn, Privacy
Link: https://presearch.com/
Introduction
Presearch is an open and decentralized search engine. The entire search engine consists of users, node operators and keyword bidders. The engine allows its users to regain their data privacy and rewards users for their searches with tokens. Users can contribute to additional data layers through community packages for more accurate results. Presearch allows advertisers to stake PRE tokens to display their ads in search results without paying extra fees for certain keywords, and whichever advertiser stakes the most tokens will win the ad auction. Technically, Presearch queries are processed anonymously by a decentralized network of node servers, thus protecting user privacy.
Data Source
The first stage of Presearch is a "set of search tools with static rewards", which sends users to other search engines through Presearch.
Reward mechanism
Nodes: Anyone can set up their own computer or virtual private server as a node. Nodes can be rewarded with PRE tokens.
Users
Users can also earn PRE tokens for conducting searches.
Advertisers
Advertisers need to stake PRE tokens to display their ads in search results, and whichever advertiser stakes the most tokens will win the ad auction.
User experience
Presearch feels like a more user-friendly version of Google. It is more suitable for crypto users who need to search for general information, as well as Web 2.0 users who hate ads and want to protect their privacy.
Pros
Presearch supports fuzzy searches just like the traditional search engines. With its relatively relevant query results and less ads disturbance, it provides a more friendly user experience. Additionally, its tokenomics model incentivizes users to use search more often in order to get token rewards.
Cons
Currently, Presearch's search engine algorithm is still in the stage of Web 2.0, processing information as is without understanding the value and meaning of Web 3.0 information itself. For Web 3.0 native users, the more valuable Web 3.0 information is not available. (For example: Presearch does integrate Etherscan data, however, when users search for "The largest single ETH transaction of the day”, they cannot get the transaction record they are looking for; nor can they get results for "Events to be held today on Decentaland".)
To be confirmed:
- Whether the distributed node servers are completely decentralized;
- How to iterate algorithm logic with the increase of data volume and data complexity;
- Whether the quality of search results will be affected if advertisers further increase.
Neeva.xyz
Keywords: NFT, ETH
Link: https://neeva.xyz/
Introduction
Neeva.xyz is an experiment carried out by the task force of five people at Neeva, a Web 2.0 ad-free search engine company established by two former Google executives. It builds nodes in multiple blockchains, extracts data from them, combines that with off-chain data from IPFS and the web, creates data processing pipelines, and uses the search serving stack to deliver a new experience on neeva.xyz. Neeva currently supports NFTs on Ethereum, and will include Polygon, Avalanche and Solana in the future. At the same time, Neeva will also develop features such as APIs, widgets and bots. The project has not announced its roadmap or tokenomics model so far.
Data source
Neeva builds nodes in multiple blockchains, extracts data from them, combines it with off-chain data from IPFS and the web, and creates data processing pipelines.
Reward mechanism
Not yet announced
User experience
The data provided by Neeva is more suitable for preliminary data analysis by NFT researchers.
Pros
The page is clear and aggregates the basic information of a project such as OpenSea, Rariable, Etherscan, Twitter, Discord, etc. Users can search for the specific data of an NFT project with one click.
Cons
There is insufficient support for fuzzy searches. And search results for less popular NFTs are not accurate and of little relevance. Users themselves need to be sufficiently certain of their queries to get desired results. In terms of user perception, it is more like an NFT data aggregator.
Lighthouse
Keywords: Metaverse, Navigation
Link: https://www.lighthouselabs.xyz/
Introduction
Lighthouse is an open Metaverse navigation engine capable of searching virtual worlds for places, events, friends, creators, assets and experiences. In addition to search, Lighthouse will provide a portal where users can view popular events, create friend groups to explore the metaverse, check where their NFTs can be used, and follow the work of specific brands and creators. At present, the project is in the early stage, and the roadmap, beta version, and tokenomics model have not been announced yet.
Data sources
The data sources have not been revealed
Reward mechanism
Not yet announced
Summary
While many brands have announced their entry into the Metaverse, there is not yet a good portal for users to search for places, events, communities and people in the Metaverse. The algorithmic logic behind the search engine will be the key.
Drifty
Keywords: Filtered Information, Web 3 Oriented
Link: https://www.drifty.xyz/
Introduction
Drift is a search engine which focuses on Web 3.0 contents. It filters out undesired results for searches. From its official introduction, Drift supports aggregate search results of Google, Bing, DuckduckGo and Opensea; whenever a project gets found, Drift would automatically list information like the official website, Twitter, Discord, mainnet and so on. It also supports newly submitted projects/websites. Currently, its beta version has been rolled out, while its roadmaps and tokenomics are still unspecified.
Data Source
Similar to Presearch, the current test version aggregates all other search engine results, then results get filtered and sorted.
Reward mechanism
Not yet announced
User experience
The initial version of Drifty provides similar search results as those of Presearch. Its UI design is somewhat poorly done. And for NFT searches, it shows only one page of results that are not very relevant. Since Drifty is still in its early stage, we’d say it’s not really a direct competitor to Presearch.
To be confirmed
According to the information gathered so far, Drifty provides more of a reorganization of contents provided by the traditional search engines than results at its original algorithmic logic. With its heavy dependence on existing search algorithms, it won’t be able to further parse Web 3.0 indigenous information for meaningful results.
IPSE
Keywords: IPFS, Mining
Link: https://www.ipse.io/
IPFS search engine mainly improve the current user-centric ecosystem in three ways:
●Privacy and ownership protection: users can decide whether to allow their proprietary resources to be shown in the results.
●Tamper-proof: All historical versions of the resource will be retained; records of any deletion and edits by the resource providers can be traced.
●Rebate: Under the traditional model, search engines utilize user data and resources to collect advertising revenue from advertising entities. While under the IPFS model, the users themselves can decide whether to place advertisements. If they agree, they would receive part of the ads proceeds, as the reward for helping enterprises place ads more accurately.
Introduction
IPSE is a search engine built on IPFS, using Proof of Capacity as its consensus mechanism. Users gain the token POST by providing data resources, storage and hashrate (by becoming its nodes). According to its website UI, successfully shared resources seeds will be divided into categories of html, video, image, audio, package, dir and so on.
User experience
Since the project is still under development, resources for search are limited to mostly videos and images.
Data source
Authorized by users
Blockscan
Keywords: IPFS, Chat
Link: https://blockscan.com/
Introduction
Blockscan can be used to search blockchain addresses, transaction information and decentralized domain names. It also developed a chatting system between addresses.
User experience
It aggregates the blockchain explorers of major chains (i.e Etherscan, BscScan, PolygonScan) for searching blockchain addresses and transaction data. When searching for a blockchain address, various blockchain explorers will pop up and users need to manually click to open. For searching decentralized domain names, many domains can not be found, and most domains don’t contain meaningful information. Overall, it provides inferior user experience.
Cypher Hunter
Keywords: Project, Organization, Human resource, Yellow Pages
Link: https://www.cypherhunter.com/zh-hans/
Introduction Cypher Hunter aggregates basic information of trending Web 3.0 projects and teams. Users can find any included project/company name to view the project/enterprise profile, social media accounts and the team structure, or search for included people for their Web 3.0 work experience and investment information. Currently Cypher is still in an early stage, with not much public information. The following data is from its official website.
Data Source
Centralized aggregator
Reward mechanism
Not yet released
User experience
As a Web 3.0 yellow page project, it is similar to Block123, which aggregates public information of specific projects/persons/companies. But because the data is aggregated in a centralized way, it can be delayed and erroneous. At the same time, it doesn’t support searches by categories (ie. Media, projects, etc.), thus resulting in its poor user experience.
Original link：
Translation: @Yue @Evan
Proofreading: @YaruiP @ Diamond
Layout：@Coucou