Search engines are getting worse, so OpenWebSearch funded by the European Union want to fix it

Not gaming news but an important subject to cover anyway since it’s something that affects me and GamingOnLinux directly, as well as all of you who regularly use a search engine. The OpenWebSearch might be one way to save us all.

It’s certainly no secret that web searching is getting worse as all the AI enshittification continues. AI is more and more forced in your face, and the big few (Google, Microsoft) like to keep as much control as they possibly can. Just look at recent news, with Microsoft cutting off access to Bing Search APIs on August 11 2025 as they continue to pivot to AI.

Especially important for sites like GamingOnLinux, and pretty much any news site that isn’t one of the big few that keep buying up all the others, as we might only be one algorithm change from not being shown in search results at all.

OpenWebSearch is one possible new ally in this internet fight, a European Union-funded project to build up a massive modern search index that doesn’t depend on the big US giants. The idea is not to build a search system themselves, but to provide an open search API, so that others would be able to hook into it and make use of it.

They’ve just announced recently that it’s going public in June:

After 2,5 years of intensive research and programming efforts, the entire Openwebsearch.eu project team is excited to grant access to its pilot of the first-ever federated pan-European Open Web Index (OWI).

From June onward, commercial and scientific development teams of any size as well as interested individuals are welcome to access and make use of almost a petabyte (and growing) of open web data under a general research license or – upon request – under a designated commercial license as well.

I’m very interested to see what becomes of this one. Hopefully something meaningful, but I remain skeptical on it doing much to make a dent in the sides of Google and Bing. Depends if they manage to get some search engines to make good use of it or not and if the licensing when it’s out fully is actually reasonable.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.