.

I think it would be very hard to make a search engine like Google, but there's one man who runs his own profitable search engine by using algorithms that work differently and require different resources ("just" 8 servers). His name is Matt Wells and his search engine is called Gigablast. He was recently interviewed about search engine design.

Another man is , (I have forgotten his name). He is a South African, and he built Jonga using all the latest web technologies. The site also looks very nice. I have been dreaming of a nice engine like Jonga, for Nigeria.

Why would someone want web search results from one country only?

And i wonder what resource Nigeria has got to warant a dedicated search engine.

Hola2ng if you want to roll your own search engine you may have to come up with a good algorithm first, then thing about having your own filesystem and system design which you will adapt to your algorithm, i have gone through Google's filesystem and the thing is for advanced PhD holders in computer science.

Google uses PageRank, that's something you will most likely never lay your hand on (that's Google's heart and blood).

But i have seen something that's related to Pagerank algorithm before, too bad i can't remember the UR/text again.

There are somy algorithms that you can adapt to your use. But, it's not a simple thing.

I think you will be OK if you can use their (Google) service just like A9.com and Yahoo search started.

But i have seen something that's related to Pagerank algorithm before

The [url=http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~georgem/hilltop/]hilltop algorithm[/url] is one (pagerank is patented!). You can't get good results from these algorithms if you simply discard links to and from pages that are not Nigerian.

Challenges involved in distributed web crawling itself must not be underestimated. Jonga above is basically a small web directory so it may just run on a single server the way Nairaland does, but search engines like google and co are different.

Here's the link to read more about Google's filesystem.

I

bashali, am sorry to say it's like you sounded like you don't know what you are saying and also what we are saying.

The algoritm been mentioned here is not the normal 1970's flow charts your lecturers have been putting into your head.

When we talked about algorithm here, we are talking about how the program get to categorize a page in order to know it's relevance to a search query.

The algorithm really matter and that's what's doing the magic for Google. How i wish i can get the url that's related to PageRank.

All systems like routers, switch, and now search engines have their own algorithm. Bros, seems you need to learn more before you can make people look stupid.

Why do you need google's specifically?  Why not come up with you own?

oasisoflove.com has a complex ranking system that includes: photos, last date of visit, profile completeness, percentage of messages replied, speed of response, frequency of visit, whether user lied about geolocation, distance, etc.  More is being added.  I didn't need to use anybody's pre-made formula.  You can do the same by deciding what criteria to use in ranking websites in your SE.

The fact about google, and SE's in general is, they're highly dynamic.  What works today with them for high SERP, may be gone during their next update.  If not, SEO experts would take over the search engines with their black hat tricks.

If you really want to learn, then search for google pr formula.  You'd read till you head hurts.

[quote=seun]Why would someone want web search results from one country only?[/quote]

WHY NOT? It seems you simply haven't been in that situation before, whereby you need info from a particular country. That country only. If you try doing things like adding the country name in the search term, you are likely to come-up with just gabbage as many folks who have nothing to do with that country would have made sure they spammed their web pages with the country name, so they could do well in search engines.

Last week, I needed a company that offer a particular service, in Malaysia. What did I do? I simply went to www.google.com.my and searched for the keywords only, without including the word 'Malaysia'. I came-up with the right result in the first ten and I am doing business with that company today.

If you looked at Jonga.co.za carefully, you would agree with me that Nigeria needs something like that. Jonga is more than a directory. It's an engine and it has a bot that crawls web pages.

Try searching for the word "Nigeria" on Jonga. Relax, and take in the results that come showing.

Try these 2 opensource solutions, they run on php

1. http://www.cs.ioc.ee/~ando/sphider/index.php
2. http://www.greywyvern.com/webslavent?msg=182

Since it is opensource, you can view the code and tweak it to your liking or even port it to another language if you have the necessary skills.

josoft, you really show me, you do not know anything about programming,

.

Most things we search for are not limited to one country, and even for country specific searches like "Nairaland" we get good searches from Google already. And if you don't get good results by searching for something like "MTN" you can always add the word "Nigeria" to your query to get good results. This is still faster than going to a separate search engine just because you want to make one query.

Therefore my contention is that this is a solution in search of a problem.

@sbucareer

Your ideas are very interesting. I'm also an advocate of creativity. What I find with most of us is that we lack originality. Most suggestions I see are about how to create something that's already been done to death. I always stress the need for learning how to build things from scratch, rather than piggy backing on someone else's prototype.

As marvelous as technology is today, we've barely scratched the surface, as far as what can be done with it is concerned.

A good example is oxygen and nitrogen. We know oxygen is flammable, while nitrogen is basically inert. But why? Unless you understand the atomic structures of these elements, you cannot offer an explanation as to why. On the other hand, a good knowledge of atomic structures gives you the ability to create things never before done by anyone.

Have you heard of George Washington Carver? http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa041897.htm

He invented over 800 products from peanuts, soybeans, potatoes, etc.

The long tail of software. millions of markets of dozens which is what Google is using today to make money was first started by Joe Kraus (of Exite fame), in one interview he said he couldn't figure out how to make money with it and that's basically how Exite fizzled out of the search game.

So maybe our guy saw something we did not see.

.

Hola2g

Just would like to add that google's success is not only attributable to its algorithm.

In fact, its probably less important than the architecture and sheer firepower of the network of PC's that power google. The founders placed speed at the center of their strategy, and adopted an architecture based on ordinary PC's yet (through shere numbers) resultantly more poerful than any other site's. I'talking millions of motherboards to ensure that you get results within 1 second. Consequently Google has the most powerful computer network on this planet. So many times more powerful than the next guy (including the US government) and growing at such a rate. that its practically impossible to catch up with them. This is why, it is often borrowed by scientists for such complex tasks as simulating the human genome.

Of course, the site is abundantly redundant, and duplicates are made continously not just for hosting in different parts of the US but all over the world (in top secret locations). Google lost hundreds of thousands of PC's in a hosting-site fire once and nobody on the web even knew.

So when you build your search engine, dont forget the PC firepower.

There are so many other aspects of what makes google special, (its come a long way from Pagerank). Just as Microsoft is not just about a guy who IBM asked for an operating system. Those guys are genuine super-entrepreneurs who would have made it even if they had wound up in medicine. I mean they didnt invent serving cost-per-click text-ads next to search results, Overture did.

Also Larry and Sergey dropped out of Stanford after they started Google (yup) , so sbu, you cant call him Dr Page.

.

Hola, I am part of a dream to create a nigerian portal that can match yahoo. I could mention the site, but Seun knows my site and I'll leave him to mention it if he wants to.

But let me correct some inaccuracies in your post. First, 1 million dollars (N140m) is chump change for Leo Stan Ekeh. So you need to talk in 10's of millions when you talk about Zinox. Second, the .ng is a reality. I personally already own several (choice) .ng domain names. Yahoo and google have probably registered their .ng domains. I have checked and its available but I bet the NIC guys will not allow me to conclude the registration. That would be blatant cybersquatting. Want my advice? grab some names- the Internet is like the wild west. Its the last real estate that is unowned.

On you making your dreams a reality, I can only say that I do not subscribe to the school that teaches that everyone should aim at being a celebrity businessman/ leader or whatever. We dont all have to be successful in a way everyone in the world can know about us. Everyone can not achieve what Seun Osewa has achieved. True success in life is a 3 -step process, 1)Find something you are good at/ enjoy/ others appreciate, 2) take is to its zenith, and finally 3) Give back. Follow this 3 step rule and whether its in teaching or in motherhood, you will die happy.

why wait for the U.S to let technology define us?
why can't we define our own technology.
Whats wrong with having a nigerian email service, or nigerian search or chatrooms?

Thank God someone is reading. Very same thing I was thinking about on my way home, last night.
We adapt into western technology and do not usually adapt western technology to fit our perculiar needs.

I'd support a Nigerian search engine, any day, any time. There is a huge quantity of Nigerian content out there.

A Nigerian search engine http://www.supernigeria.com

Give it a try and share your thoughts

.

try www.searchnaija.com its new. i designed the whole concept all by myself. it took me 4 months of beeing indoors and lonely with my pc. 2 months to put up the idea. i wonder how long it will take me to get to the roof.

No online business will become a great success by copying or depending on another online business for success.

What about creating a site that will bring Nigerians to it every single hour of the day either for business, pleasure, knowledge, news etc?

What about building a site that integrates almost everything that people find useful on the internet while focusing on the Nigerian market?

This is easy to do even though it takes time.

This is what I am doing now and will be done in 3 weeks maximum.

It is very very vital and necessary for us to have a site where everything about Nigeria can be found and every Nigerian can make use of and more importantly be able to solve problems using the website.

Chuksloy, I agree with "sbucareer", and congratulate you on your effort. However, have you thought about spamming and how to deal with it? You better add some image verification to the "add site" form, to deter spam bots, and also, do not allow new entries to go straight into your database. Verify them.

All the best.

thanks guys, i really appreciate your comments expecially that of "sbucareer". the truth is that i really know about web crawlers and what it takes to get a complete search engine working(i did research before i start the whole project). but u see this is nigeria , most of us who learned programming know less than they should, because there is only little info available. i keep telling myself that in future i might be able to right my own crawler, infact ive started improving my perl and c++ status. if u guys understand me u will see that i like the hard way(i really want every single code in the site to be done by me).




http://www.searchnaija.com/friend_finder/

Try and work on this, this is the source




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do you know one thing save this source on the desktop using (source.html) if you open it again it will give you google homepage. byyyyye