Show HN: ByteWise Search a Privacy, Zero-Traffic, Community-Driven Search Engine

5 points

a year ago

Hey HN, I'm excited to share ByteWise Search, an innovative open-source search engine I've been building. Unlike traditional search engines, ByteWise is designed to be entirely client-side, running directly in your browser. This means it offers unparalleled privacy, blazing speed, and near-zero traffic consumption for search queries. Why ByteWise Search?

My goal was to create a search experience that puts the user first, without compromises on privacy or performance. Here's what makes it unique:

* Absolute Privacy: Your search queries never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser. No tracking, no cookies, no fingerprints.

* Zero Traffic for Search: After the initial load, every subsequent search query consumes 0KB of network traffic. Results are served instantly from a local database.

* Offline Functionality: Thanks to Service Workers and IndexedDB, ByteWise Search works perfectly even when you're offline.

* No API Keys, No Backend: This project runs entirely on GitHub Pages, making it completely free to host and use. There are no external APIs for search results, eliminating dependencies and potential costs.

The Community-Driven Vision This is where it gets really interesting, and where I need your help! Instead of relying on a centralized index, ByteWise Search is designed to be community-driven. The search results are powered by a local database that can be extended and improved by users like you. How it works:

* Local Contributions: You can add new "query -> relevant link" pairs directly within the app. These contributions are saved locally in your browser.

* Export & Share: You can export your local contributions as a JSON file.

* Contribute via GitHub Pull Request: The vision is for the community to contribute these exported JSON files back to the main GitHub repository via Pull Requests. Once merged, these contributions become part of the public, shared database, benefiting everyone using ByteWise Search.

This model allows us to collectively build a high-quality, curated, and privacy-respecting knowledge base, tailored by the community for the community. Performance Highlights (vs. traditional search)

* Initial Load: ~24KB

* Search Query: 0KB (from cache/local DB)

* Response Speed: Instant (from cache/local DB)

* Offline Support: Yes

* External API Calls for Search: None

Call to Action I believe this approach has the potential to redefine how we think about search, especially for specific, curated knowledge domains.

I'd love to get your feedback, ideas, and especially contributions!

* Try the Live Demo: https://ferki-git-creator.github.io/bytewise-search/

* Explore the Code & Contribute: https://github.com/ferki-git-creator/bytewise-search

Let's build a truly private and community-powered search engine together! Thanks for checking it out.

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