Ranking Algorithm Update Testing

Recently we have been working on a major update to Mojeek’s core ranking algorithm. This new algorithm is not yet complete, but in some cases it does already improve upon the current results. For this reason we thought it would be good to make it available for you to try out now, which you can do so by appending ‘&ac=test` to the usual search URL.

There are still some important ranking signals to re-introduce to it, so the differences between the current results will vary considerably, from not performing as well, to very similar, to much better, to just different. As this algorithm is still work in progress, the results are also liable to change.

For example, very similar:
https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=mojeek
https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=mojeek&ac=test

Much better and the type of query this update is targetting:
https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=war+of+the+worlds
https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=war+of+the+worlds&ac=test

Feedback is of course welcome, here or via a DM, or simply let us know about your experience of using it.

EDIT: And also, hello everyone, I’ve been quiet the past two weeks due to a holiday :grinning:

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hi Josh!

wow, the ‘war of the worlds’ example is a huge improvement

so it seems like it’s doing better with natural language, or perhaps considering the order of the terms better???

the new algo affects single term searches as well it seems, though early testing seems to be in the ‘just different’ category

overall it seems like it’s going to work allot better

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The War of the Worlds query here is a very extreme example, and one which highlighted an issue that definitely needed some deeper thought.

On

This algorithm is a more back-to-basics one, with relevancy being the thing that is prioritised, meaning authority is not so much of an important factor for ranking on &ac=test - this being said, it’s a work in progress and we’re looking to bring back in some of the authority into ranking as we work on it.

This is very positive. Thanks for sharing your method, I’d also decided not to copy paste every time and added &ac=test as a cookie through Firefox:

Important to note here is that this will be flagged in the cookie page as an unknown setting.

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that’s neat - i’m guessing that adding the cookie server-side wouldn’t be difficult and, if there’s going to be allot more testing like this, perhaps it might be worth adding a user setting to opt-in to testing???

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It’s a very good point, and it is the intention to allow for more of these tests.

Also, as Colin intimated there’s a big one coming into the testing pipeline in the notsodistant future.

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Just giving this testing thread a bump in case anyone who has been trying it out has any comments/this sparks anything. Any feedback on this algorithm update is useful; in particular we are interested to know:

  1. have you found the test algorithm more often to be better or worse than the current algoirthm, and
  2. are there any cases where the current algorithm is good but the new algorithm gets it completely wrong?

As always, feel free to send feedback however you prefer, a DM here, an open post, the contact page, or the Submit Feedback onpage button :pray:

I tried the test algorithm to see if themarkup.org would rank higher. It still ranked third here.

Hello, all.

I’m fairly new to Mojeek. I received the Freedom To Seek and Algorithm Testing email newsletter yesterday afternoon and so I thought I’d create an account on here to socialize with you all. I’ll be sure to test out the new ranking algorithm and provide any feedback that I can.

Keep up the great work!

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Welcome @gabehcuod :wave: it’s great to have you here and testing, let us know how you find it.

Thank you. I read about Mojeek on RestorePrivacy’s website in their section about search engines.

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With that param, Mojeek now beats some mainstream engines for certain esoteric queries:

https://www.mojeek.com/search?ac=test&q=microdata%20xfn

XFN = “XHTML Friends Network”

When searching for “XFN FOAF” (FOAF is an RDF vocabulary, like schema.org); I see a bunch of new interesting sites I could not find on Google/Bing.

I won’t lie; Mojeek isn’t a Google or Bing replacement yet. It is, however, a great alternative to keep on speed dial when looking for something different.

Great work!

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Hi, could you maybe share how you managed to add that cookie throught Firefox? I’d like to do it too to avoid copy pasting

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  1. load www.mojeek.com
  2. open the dev tools (F12)
  3. click the Storage tab then the ‘Cookies’ item
  4. click the ‘+’ icon to add an item
  5. edit the name and value fields by double clicking them
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Cheers @itsMe! @Volpit this should look like it does here:

I’ve widened this to the right to include the Max-Age field, which it’s good to change for something way out in the future just so the cookie doesn’t expire prematurely during testing :pray:

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