Good call, I should have worded that better. While the government and scientists were instrumental in creating the foundation for the internet, I was thinking more along the lines of the early PC era. When the internet was more or less a tool for openly sharing and discussing information as well as ideas.

But a lot of tech stems from governmental need and/or government funding. I mean, the modern refrigerator was a result of NASA problem solving for the environmental conditions found in space! GPS, LASIK, MRI’s, LED’s, barcodes, closed captioning, and the human genome project were all also thanks to government research too!

Without Google’s grubby paws across most the web, it’d be much more like the initial intent of what the internet was supposed to be, a welcoming place with open and accessible info!

If you don’t want to pay to access a web search service, just use docker and run your own SearXNG instance! This will also allow you to host our own AI model that searches the web through SearXNG. While it may sound like a lot of work, it truly takes an afternoon and some unused RAM on your PC to make happen, then you’re set up!

Pretty sure the illustration here is just being used to demonstrate what’s taking place visually for the reader!