Mullvad Leta

22 points by jrwren

icefox

For context: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/introducing-mullvad-leta-a-search-engine-used-in-the-mullvad-browser

algernon

Mullvad Leta uses the Google Search API as a proxy

Yeah, no, goodbye.

I was hoping for something useful, but the problem with google is not just the complete lack of privacy (which this does seem to address, at least somewhat), but that the search results are useless too (which this doesn’t address, case in point).

ThinkChaos

They’re a VPN provider. Their whole business is being a proxy for privacy reasons.
So not surprising this is how their search engine works.
- algernon
  
  Surprising? No. But this is not a search engine. It’s a somewhat privacy preserving google search proxy, one which doesn’t solve the biggest problem of google search: the results being shit.
  - ThinkChaos
    
    I think you’re just not the target audience and not seeing it from the intended angle.
    Mullvad’s is not focusing on people that know what a meta search engine is nor are informed about results being bad (and probably don’t realize it much – boiled frog style). Calling it a generic search engine is best to address these people.
    Also, I find people are usually pretty reticent to changing search engine, and telling them they can still get the same results is helpful in getting them to change. So Leta makes sense there and I’ll recommend it instead of Brave.
- kas
  
  They could pay Kagi to use their search results.
  - algernon
    
    Or, if they say they’re a search engine, they could be a search engine, and not a mere meta-search engine with a single backend and some caching features thrown in on top.
    
    kas
    
    Indeed!
  - adamcstephens
    
    Isn’t Kagi paying Google?
    
    kas
    
    I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Could Kagi make good and personalized results out of Google’s API?
    
    zilti
    
    No, it’s a mix of their own stuff and iirc Yandex.
    
    minimax
    
    Why an “iirc”? You could just look at https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html
    
    Our search results also include anonymized API calls to all major search result providers worldwide, specialized search engines like Marginalia, and sources of vertical information such as Wolfram Alpha, Apple, Wikipedia, Open Meteo, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other APIs. Typically, every search query on Kagi will call a dozen or so different sources simultaneously