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.
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:
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???
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:
have you found the test algorithm more often to be better or worse than the current algoirthm, and
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
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.
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.
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
it’s great to have you here and testing, let us know how you find it.