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Marginalia Search

Hacker Approved

Ranked 9 of 38 search engines by recommenders

Recommended for finding real personal blogs and non-commercial sites that mainstream engines bury, often as a second search. Caveat: its index is small and misses many queries.

Recommended for finding real personal blogs and non-commercial sites that mainstream engines bury, often as a second search. Caveat: its index is small and misses many queries.

54 people gave an opinion

recommend it
50
criticize it
4
approval share
93%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 12 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it carries the badge

  • 50 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 13 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Good alternative when Google falls short

    “results from search engines like marginalia etc that I tend to forget to search directly but like having meshed into my general searches.”

    Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore”

    “I usually use Marginalia Search when I'm researching something and not finding any good results on Kagi or Google.”

    Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”

    “Marginalia likely returns better results than Google, when it returns useful results.”

    Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update”
  • Finds obscure small-web sites

    “has some not-very-obvious tools for exploring the link graph, that will occasionally turn up interesting things”

    Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?”

    “You can kinda get a similar experience to StumbleUpon with marginalia's explore mode”

    Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Making RSS More Fun”

    “I love your search engine for my ttrpg side projects to find obscure blogs, etc.”

    Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)”
  • Surfaces real personal blogs

    “almost always I find a real person writing about their experiences, not some content farm or corporate bland talk”

    Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Publish Your Work”

    “is an indie search engine that prioritizes small websites and non-commercial content”

    Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is there a search engine that blocks SEO / AI content?”

    “it does achieve its stated goal: of resurfacing real people on the internet.”

    Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Internet Increasingly Becoming Unarchivable”
  • Filters out ads and scripts

    “It flags sites that have advertising, javascript, etc. meaning that you can easily avoid those.”

    Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Forking the Web”

    “Whitelisting non–slop is sufficient and gets you Marginalia Search.”

    Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “You Can't Trust the Internet Anymore”

    “Whatever it does find is pretty much guaranteed to be non-slop.”

    Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Index is small and incomplete

    “It's refreshing, although it doesn't index enough stuff to find what you're looking for, most times.”

    Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe”

    “Try Marginalia Search but be warned it doesn't index the entire web”

    Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “A new spam policy for "back button hijacking"”

    “a much larger index created by one person with less funding”

    Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”
  • Newer interface needs JavaScript

    “And the 'old' interface, you bet I tried to use it... which is actually gated with javascript”

    Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

    “Sadely this search engine is now javascript only.”

    Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

Other search engines people recommend

The four most recommended other search engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Marginalia Search compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Kagi73223476%132 yrs106 ownersApproved
Google Search3151,03923%1220 yrs25 owners—
DuckDuckGo28620458%123.5 yrs47 owners—
Hister81990%92 mo17 ownersApproved
Marginalia SearchThis page50493%12—Approved
See all 38 search engines, ranked

What people said

40 of the 80 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“man does vertico, consult, orderless and marginalia help with discovery”

RecommendsComment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Emacs Turns 50”

“Marginalia likely returns better results than Google, when it returns useful results.”

RecommendsComment from 12 Sep 2026 in “google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update”

“Brave, Mojeek & Marginalia and EU Search Perspective have certainly been much friendlier to deal with.”

RecommendsComment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Gemini 3.7 Flash”

“most results are dead blogs and old .edu personal websites that someone forgot to delete”

MixedComment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse”

“Bonus points to Marginalia for finding the obscure things Brave doesn't surface”

RecommendsComment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?”

“a much larger index created by one person with less funding”

MixedComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”

“I usually use Marginalia Search when I'm researching something and not finding any good results on Kagi or Google.”

RecommendsComment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”

“Marginalia already gives me better results for many queries than Google”

RecommendsComment from 17 Jul 2026 in “Mozilla: The state of open source AI”

“packages like consult, vertico, marginalia etc all built on Emacs' facilities improving not just the package itself but how it integrates”

RecommendsComment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Even More Batteries Included with Emacs”

“I saw the impressive things Marginalia Search is doing in this area”

RecommendsComment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Kage – Shadow any website to a single binary for offline viewing”

“results from search engines like marginalia etc that I tend to forget to search directly but like having meshed into my general searches.”

MixedComment from 25 May 2026 in “Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore”

“by the sake of merely not being crap it's actually pretty decent if the thing you're looking for is in its index set”

RecommendsComment from 21 May 2026 in “Apparently Google hates us now”

“It flags sites that have advertising, javascript, etc. meaning that you can easily avoid those.”

RecommendsComment from 10 May 2026 in “Forking the Web”

“Marginalia Search / Kagi Small Web / Wiby / Million Short are better options”

RecommendsComment from 8 May 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you find good personal blogs on Google nowadays?”

“demonstrates powerful completion workflows that use daily in Emacs”

RecommendsComment from 6 May 2026 in “Emacs Completion Showcase with Vompeccc”

“Marginalia [5], if your searches are less about "big tech SEO servants"”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you search the web programmatically these days?”

“Try Marginalia Search but be warned it doesn't index the entire web”

RecommendsComment from 14 Apr 2026 in “A new spam policy for "back button hijacking"”

“I typically use marginalia and wiby to make finding posts from blogs easier”

RecommendsComment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: I built a frontpage for personal blogs”

“And the 'old' interface, you bet I tried to use it... which is actually gated with javascript”

CriticizesComment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“Marginalia have an excellent API that you can connect to from your own personal non-Javascript meta-search engine”

RecommendsComment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“It's a very nice site now. I prefer it better than old version.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“Sadely this search engine is now javascript only.”

CriticizesComment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“Whatever it does find is pretty much guaranteed to be non-slop.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“I am always fascinated by what it unearths when using it, and it really is a breath of fresh air.”

RecommendsComment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Kevin Boone: The "small web" is bigger than you might think”

“I love your search engine for my ttrpg side projects to find obscure blogs, etc.”

RecommendsComment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)”

“It's refreshing, although it doesn't index enough stuff to find what you're looking for, most times.”

MixedComment from 19 Feb 2026 in “How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe”

“Whitelisting non–slop is sufficient and gets you Marginalia Search.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Feb 2026 in “You Can't Trust the Internet Anymore”

“it does achieve its stated goal: of resurfacing real people on the internet.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Internet Increasingly Becoming Unarchivable”

“I am pretty happy with https://marginalia-search.com/ . It's kind of my secondary search engine at this point.”

RecommendsComment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you”

“Read the Marginalia blog too, there's so much good information in there.”

RecommendsComment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi”

“almost always I find a real person writing about their experiences, not some content farm or corporate bland talk”

RecommendsComment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Publish Your Work”

“Add your site to Marginalia Search. They accept submissions by email or GitHub PR”

RecommendsComment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi”

“Sometimes I find it useful to find answers to technical problems because it only searches the kind of site where people write about the technical problems they solved.”

RecommendsComment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi”

“I especially appreciate Marginalia for publicly documenting as much about building a search engine as they have”

RecommendsComment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi”

“is an indie search engine that prioritizes small websites and non-commercial content”

RecommendsComment from 20 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is there a search engine that blocks SEO / AI content?”

“marginalia returns them as top results when I search the relevant keywords”

RecommendsComment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Google de-indexed Bear Blog and I don't know why”

“You can kinda get a similar experience to StumbleUpon with marginalia's explore mode”

RecommendsComment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Making RSS More Fun”

“has some not-very-obvious tools for exploring the link graph, that will occasionally turn up interesting things”

RecommendsComment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?”

“I wonder what an AI using Marginalia for reference would be like.”

MixedComment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Kagi Assistants”

“marginalia search is great as a contrast to engines like google”

RecommendsComment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Building a Simple Search Engine That Works”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.