Ryan Merket reports that Viktor Lofgren’s five-year-old Marginalia Search is drawing renewed attention for running its own crawler and index, ranking non-commercial, text-heavy pages with ‘simple technology, no AI,’ and staying independent of venture money. The AGPL-3.0 engine has been supported by an NLnet grant under the EU-backed NGI0 Entrust program from December 2022 to November 2024, a $15,000 FUTO grant in September 2023, and a second NLnet grant in March 2025, with Lofgren working on it full time since June 2023 using savings, grants, and donations.
Marginalia Search resurfaces as a grant-funded, AI-free index
Ryan Merket reports that Viktor Lofgren's five-year-old Marginalia Search is drawing renewed attention for running its own crawler and index, ranking non-commercial, text-heavy pages with 'simple technology, no AI,' and staying independent of venture money. The AGPL-3.0 engine has been supported by an NLnet grant under the EU-backed NGI0 Entrust program from December 2022 to November 2024, a $15,000 FUTO grant in September 2023, and a second NLnet grant in March 2025, with Lofgren working on it full time since June 2023 using savings, grants, and donations.
Source: Runtimewire