¶ PVYsearch
Every customer, whether you opt for PVY@Cloud SaaS, PVY@Home, or PVY@Office Appliance, automatically receives a personalized Start Page. This Start Page includes PVYsearch, PVYmaps, and the PVYapp Launcher. You can fully customize it with your own logo and add essential links to the footer.
¶ Privacy by Design
To access your personalized Search Start Page, you authenticate with your PVY-ID, but not for data harvesting purposes. Neither we nor your SysAdmin will see or know what you search for, as we don’t fingerprint or profile any user.
We believe that searching the Internet is a personal matter and should not leave a trace to harvest data about you, for several reasons:
- Privacy
- Competition
- Intellectual property
We also believe in equality. This means that wealthy organizations should not have an unfair advantage over those that are less wealthy. That’s why PVYsearch, which surpasses other offerings, does not display any ads. Instead, it shows you a shield indicating how many active trackers and cookies are on the targeted link displayed from your search.
¶ Cryptographic Blind Tokenized Search API
PVYsearch requires an extension for your Web Browser, to utilize cryptographic blind tokenized API and Local Storage in your Browser. That means, that non of your search queries can be linked to an PVY-ID or in short a personalized User ID.
However, the current downside, which we address with Browser Local Storage, is, that if your customize beside our Global Search Lenses for everyone, your personalized Search Lenses, a really powerful instrument, will get pruned from Browser’s Local Storage, once you clean your Browser Chache (shift+cmd+delete). However, we have some plans to address this issue in smart way.
To learn about this privacy focused technology, currently being ratified by the IETF. please visit:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_signature
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_signature
¶ Search Algorithm
The search algorithm is proprietary, based on traditional and transparent values such as:
- Website popularity
- Number of backlinks
- User ranking, where users can upvote or downvote results
This is combined with AI and machine learning for the benefit of the user. If our search detects that you are looking for an equation, results from niche search engines like WolframAlpha are displayed at the top. Quick answers using /grok provide drop-down responses to your questions without visiting the website. Instead of ChatGPT or OpenAI, we use the more comprehensive /grok AI from X, mainly for ethical reasons.
We access paid search APIs from major engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Qwant, as well as smaller projects, but rank them differently since we don’t include adwords or sponsored links. We also do not shadow ban websites.
In addition to WolframAlpha, we utilize Wikipedia content. WolframAlpha is used for question-based searches and is often included in “Quick Answer” results. We clearly state that some Wikipedia content can be politically motivated and should be considered carefully, especially for online research
¶ Search Filters
Using a common filter, you can sort your results by Forums, Images, Videos, News, Podcasts, or Maps, and refine them further by:
- Global Scope or National
- Order
- Time
- Verbatim or Personalized
You can narrow down forum and community searches to specific research sections, such as:
- Academic
- Forums
- PDFs and Publications
- Programming
- News 360
- Small Web
- Receipes
- Documentation
You can also edit these Search Lenses or create your own. This feature is particularly useful for families, providing a “child protection” tool to block harmful content. You can focus on sports, education, documentaries, and exclude violence or explicit content. Thanks to a tokenized login instead of cookie-based, settings persist across multiple devices, even if you clear the browser cache.
¶ Search Lenses
As mentioned above, search lenses are powerful and work well. For business-related Internet research, you can create specific lenses tailored to your industry and monitor news related to your business environment with just a few clicks.
Search lenses and results can be shared, making it easier than sending a long URL via email, which often gets caught in spam filters to prevent phishing emails. For kids you can set a focus on education or/and sport with search lenses, and avoid the junk available in the Internet.
¶ The Summarizer
This handy tool provides quick briefings about a company, website, science publication, or any other topic you’re researching. Simply enter a website URL or upload a PDF, and the AI will summarize the key figures and facts in the correct context, just as a human would.
¶ The Small Web
The Small Web is a special editorial section that provides insights into publications, blog entries from smaller publishers, hobbyists, and other content beyond mainstream narratives.
Smaller blogs or news sites can apply to be listed on The Small Web, which is already read by over 1 million people daily as of June 2024.
¶ /grok
We integrated /grok2 from X, since we believe A.I shall be ethical and offers some fun too.
¶ PVY App Launcher
Based on the app stack you run with PVY.swiss, you have an elegant App Launcher at the bottom of your search page. This allows you to quickly access all your private digital assets and productivity tools, such as:
- PVYfiles
- PVYoffice
- PVYphotos
and any other PVYapp. It is split for quick access into:
- Recent Apps
- Productivity
- Communication
- Data & Analytics
- All Apps (43)
The Footer is customizable for your own Organization Users, so you can set Links like to your Website, or other usefull Channels.
¶ Ah, yes, before we forget: PVYmaps
Yes, it’s true that PVY.swiss runs its own map services. All vector-based cartography and daily updated high-resolution satellite images are hosted on our own servers in our own data center.