Building an independent search engine from scratch: My journey with Orange Search
Hey everyone! 👋
​I wanted to share a project I've been building as an indie developer: Orange Search (https://www.orangesearch.org).
I decided to design a web search engine completely from the ground up, featuring a bespoke binary-indexed database for handling data storage and fast lookups.
​The core goal is to create a lightweight, independent, and ad-free search experience that proves you can still engineer fundamental web infrastructure outside of major tech monopolies.
​Since I'm building this entirely solo with a zero-dollar budget, I'd love to connect with fellow developers and builders here:
​What are the biggest technical hurdles you've faced when dealing with custom data indexing or backend storage?
​How do you approach keeping independent web tools fast and efficient?
​Check it out if you are curious, and I'd love to hear your thoughts, technical feedback, or questions about the architecture!
Replies
Softorino 💻📲
The ad-free part is what I would lead with, ahead of the index. On the browser tool I put out a couple of weeks ago the thing people actually reacted to was that nothing gets uploaded, and the engineering underneath it never landed the same way. What does a cold query cost you on the custom index compared to a warm one?