It's also a weird project, since it's had an almost absurdly positive reaction. For example, many people develop a search engine and get almost lynched on HN for not working exactly like Google or not dealing with some query as expected.
I don't know you personally, but you come across as an earnest lone developer doing something for the passion of it. I think that goes a long way on here, versus someone giving off "portfolio project", "hire me" or "seeking investment" vibes. I've not really found a use case for your engine yet but I am really enjoying seeing your progress.
It's not just on HN either. The project was mentioned in The New Yorker and I've done interviews with German radio. Just the weirdest stuff's been happening since basically day one.
It has a nostalgic feel about it. Not just the visual design, but how it wont answer questions but it will look for terms. Sometimes you want a less algorithmic engine. Takes me back to my first messing around with dialup in 1994.
I don't know you personally, but you come across as an earnest lone developer doing something for the passion of it. I think that goes a long way on here, versus someone giving off "portfolio project", "hire me" or "seeking investment" vibes. I've not really found a use case for your engine yet but I am really enjoying seeing your progress.