Breaking free from the Matrix: Web3 search engine can reshape the internet’s future

Timothy Enneking

Opinion

Most online platforms today run on web2, where FAANG companies—Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet, formerly known as Google—control the data, serve ads, and track users for profit. Users are ultimately the product.

Nowhere are these problems more evident than in search. Search is one of the most fundamental activities on the internet and, thus, stands at the forefront of “gatekept content.”

How do we put how information is organized back into the hands of users, especially as the search engines promise to become even more inscrutable with the implementation of AI and the obscuring of sources?