Why is Mojeek Different?

Is Mojeek just another Bing or Google syndicate?

No. Mojeek’s web search results are 100% independent. They come from our crawler (MojeekBot) and index of the web, and are ordered using our own ranking algorithms.

Why are results on Mojeek so different?

You will often see very different sets of results for a query than you would on other search engines because they come from our own index, and are ordered by our own ranking algorithm. The main reason why Mojeek exists is to provide a true alternative in search, not something using the index of, or optimizing its ranking against, another search engine. If you are using some other search provider and find results which are eerily similar to Google or Bing then the reason will likely be because that is where they are coming from, or are designed to emulate.

What do you mean by No Tracking, and how does this affect results?

With Mojeek since tracking is not used, the ranking of results are obtained using objective factors, thus ensuring information neutrality; which means that two people searching with the same search settings (typically country and language) at the same time will get the same search results. This is not the case with Google and Bing who 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.

How do I know if a search engine has an index?

This is difficult to answer and the most honest response is that you cannot know. There are however some questions you can ask and steps you can take in order to determine if it is likely you’re using a truly independent provider.

1. Does the search engine itself claim it has an index? Are there any tell-tale signs in its privacy policy or FAQs that there is a relationship with another company, such as Microsoft (Bing)?

2. Are the results themselves substantially different from other search engines? Some metasearch and proxy options will have minor differences from each other when using the same index, but through trialling some different queries across options you’re comparing, and ignoring added extras (such as pop-out boxes with information in them) you should be able to get a general idea of if something is providing you repackaged results from a different engine.

3. Does it have a known webcrawler? In order to get the information needed to build an index, a search engine needs a bot called a crawler, or “spider”. It is always in a search engine’s interest to declare the existence of its crawler loudly so it doesn't get blocked by the websites it visits. It is important to understand here that having a declared webcrawler does not mean that you are using an independent option; a number of search providers have a bot, but it is only used to do limited indexing or provide features in addition to organic results that come from Microsoft or Google.

4. Does the search engine offer a full web search API? Usually, but not always, an agreement with a search provider prohibits redistributing their results via an API. For this reason, if a search engine offers an API including full organic web search results, it’s likely they have their own crawler. For example, using Mojeek‘s Search API, you can retrieve results from our full index of billions of webpages..

Can I turn off Wikipedia?

Mojeek is quite rare in allowing you to get rid of the Infobox (what we call the box that contains information from Wikipedia) if you don’t want to see it in results. Navigate to Preferences > Search Results and untick the box marked “Infobox.”

How can I use Mojeek with other search engines?

If you want to quickly switch between search engines in a browser, then we suggest using Firefox or a fork of it, as on this browser it is very simple to do so. You can find similar functionality with Vivaldi. On Mojeek, as well as on Yep and Brave, you can also click buttons on the results pages in order to repeat searches on other search providers; on Mojeek this is called Search Choices and we offer you some customisation options, allowing you to choose which engines appear and where.

How can I add Mojeek to my Browser or Smartphone?

App: Apple / Android
Desktop: Chrome / Firefox / Vivaldi / Others
Mobile: Chrome (iOS/Android) / Firefox (iOS/Android) / Others

How many pages of results can I see and why?

Where there are sufficient relevant results for a query you will be able to get to result number 1000, take this for example: https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=pizza&s=991. People have recently been asking why other search engines limit this so much, with fewer than 25 pages of results, and in some cases considerably fewer, being all you are able to see. For us, generating pages and pages of results can waste a considerable amount of computing resources; we had to put down a limit somewhere, and 1000 results seemed like a point past which it was unlikely people would go. This being said, it is interesting that some providers choose to stop a lot earlier than this, especially given the large numbers of results that are estimated at the top of the results page. For Mojeek this number is an exact number of results found. On other search engines it is usually an estimate.

What is Mojeek’s stance on search engine bias and censorship?

We believe that the freedom to seek is a human right. As a completely independent crawler-based search engine, Mojeek’s web search results are unaffected by the policies and biases of any company or individual. We are not directing our crawler, and therefore populating our index, based on the clicks and navigation of users. Nor are we basing any part of our search indexing or ranking on results from other search engines like Google or Bing.

We have a clear and comprehensive content policy here, but the essence of it is that we do not censor search results, but we do avoid crawling Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), content designed to game search engines, and malware.

How does Mojeek Focus compare to similar tools?

We made Mojeek Focus as something which you could quickly and easily use to create sets of websites to search across. Focus has roots back to 2006 when it was known as Personal Search. There are other tools out there such as Brave’s Goggles and Kagi’s Lenses, which provide something similar, but require more technical knowledge and/or an account in order to use.

Who is better for privacy you or ____?

This is much better answered by reading privacy policies and third-party reviews, and then deciding for yourself. The Mojeek Privacy Policy is short and we’ve kept it that way ever since we became the first search engine in the world to have a non-tracking privacy policy. We pride ourselves on fully respecting the end user’s privacy, and we applaud all good actors who have decided to advocate for and practice data minimisation.