The web is bigger than what search engines show
We believe every website with something to say should be found: not because it is big or pays, but because it has the answer. That is why we are building Toweya.
Why we are building Toweya
Search engines find what they have copied. The largest sites and the pages best tuned to rank come first, and more and more often a summary takes the place of the source.
Meanwhile most of the web sits behind search boxes: a shop's stock, a newspaper's archive, a library's catalogue, the knowledge of a small specialist. An often-cited study (BrightPlanet, 2001) put this part at 400 to 550 times the visible web. It is there, but hardly anyone finds it.
We think that is a loss, for searchers and for you. The answer is often on a site nobody gets to see.
How we go about it
Four principles decide how Toweya works.
We ask you
Toweya keeps no copy of the web. For every search it asks the websites that fit, through their own search, at that moment.
Fit, not money
Which sites are asked depends on how well they fit the search. Nobody can pay for a higher place or to be included.
The visitor comes to you
Toweya shows a title, a short text and a picture, and links to your page. No summary takes your place.
You stay in charge
ToweyaBot keeps to robots.txt and paces its requests. Rather not take part? One rule is enough.
A search, step by step
Someone searches
On toweya.com, someone searches for something your site is about, in any of the languages Toweya knows.
Toweya asks your site
Toweya picks the websites that fit best and passes the search to their own search, all at the same time. Your site answers as it would any visitor.
Your results, linking to you
Your answers appear beside those of other sites, grouped by kind of site. One click takes the visitor to your page.
What it means for your website
Toweya is a search engine that sends visitors to the source. For your website that means:
Free to take part
Being included costs nothing, and there is nothing to install.
Always what you offer now
Searchers see what you have today: new articles, stock, prices.
Small and specialist sites too
A niche shop or a trade blog gets the same chance as a large site.
Insight in the owner portal
See how often Toweya asks your site and how often your results are shown and opened.
Works with what you have
Toweya recognises how your site searches:
- WordPress
- Its search feed or REST API, usually without any change.
- WooCommerce
- Products with prices, through the Store API.
- Shopify
- The shop's own search, on by default.
- Magento / Adobe Commerce
- Products through the public GraphQL search.
- OpenSearch
- Any system that describes its search as RSS or Atom: Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3 and more.
- Your own search API
- Your own search address in RSS, Atom or JSON, set up in the portal.
In the owner portal
In the portal at manage.toweya.net you confirm that the website is yours. Then you can:
- see how often Toweya asks your site, and how fast it answers;
- see how often your results are shown, seen and opened;
- say which languages, category and keywords fit your site;
- connect your own search address if your site uses no standard platform;
- have your site checked again after a change.
Leaving is just as easy
Toweya's crawler is called ToweyaBot. It reads robots.txt, sends only a few requests per check with seconds in between, and stops when you turn it away. Rather not take part? This is enough:
User-agent: ToweyaBot
Disallow: /Or email crawler@toweya.net from your domain. More about ToweyaBot