A simple search for the R programming language didn't return anything about the R programming language. I'm not trying to say this isn't impressive, and they aren't doing good work. But I don't exactly think this is a good space to get into as a young company. Lots of resources have been burned by major players making subpar products.
This is the second "alt search engine" submission I've seen today. Normally I'm in favor of healthy competition in the "open/non-evil" products space. But search engines probably more than any other web-based application, benefit from economies of scale.
So why bother starting another one when DuckDuckGo is already gaining mind and market share? It just seems wasteful to re-index the Web and develop algorithms for searching it when someone else is already doing it.
Hi, I started developing Mojeek way before DuckDuckGo as a hobby project. We also have our own search index unlike DDG, which I've only more recently had the funds to start growing.