Neeva: Ad-free search engine shuts down

Neeva, an advert- and tracker-free hunt motor founded by a erstwhile Google advertisement exec, says it volition unopen down.

The hunt motor asked users to wage alternatively than beryllium shown ads but struggled to pull subscribers.

Recently, it besides started showing artificial-intelligence-generated answers to searches.

Now, the institution says it is looking to physique connected the expertise it developed to supply those answers and is exploring different AI businesses opportunities.

It volition adjacent connected 2 June, it says, and users volition beryllium capable to person a refund for the unused information of their subscriptions.

Neeva was created by Sridhar Ramaswamy, who worked astatine Google for 16 years and ran its advertisement business. He told BBC News the exertion assemblage had go "exploitative" of people's data, thing helium nary longer wanted to beryllium a portion of.

But helium and co-founder Vivek Raghunathan person present blogged: "Throughout this journey, we've discovered that it is 1 happening to physique a hunt motor and an wholly antithetic happening to person regular users of the request to power to a amended choice."

They were up against "entrenched organisations with endless resources" and "friction", specified arsenic users having to alteration default hunt settings, preventing radical from switching,

The founders besides blamed a "different economical environment" since launch, successful October.

"Contrary to fashionable belief, convincing users to wage for a amended acquisition was really a little hard occupation compared to getting them to effort a caller hunt motor successful the archetypal place," they said.

The hunt motor employs astir 50 radical and, astatine launch, had raised $77.5m (£68m) from investors.

The institution said it was present looking for commercialized opportunities to use its expertise successful AI, peculiarly successful ample connection models (LLM), which powerfulness chatbots specified arsenic ChatGPT.

"Over the past year, we've seen the clear, pressing request to usage LLMs effectively, inexpensively, safely, and responsibly," the founders said. And the exertion they had developed for Neeva "enterprises truly want, and need, today".

"We are actively exploring however we tin use our hunt and LLM expertise successful these settings and we volition supply updates connected the aboriginal of our enactment and our squad successful the adjacent fewer weeks," they added.