With our mission to redefine the nature of digital visual media as assets, we recently released the world’s first Web 3.0 Search Engine for NFTs (Beta).
Since the World Wide Web was first conceived in the early 90s, there have been significant updates from Web 1.0’s “Static Web” to Web 2.0’s “Social Web.” While Web 2.0 has been essential for both individuals and organizations around the world, several issues have hindered it. The centralization of Web 2.0 has led to censorship issues, data manipulation, and algorithm-based search results based on data profiles that continue to hinder what users search for.
Web 3.0, the “Semantic Web”, represents the internet’s next evolution, a decentralized platform focusing on content-based search results. We’re excited to be at the forefront of Web 3.0 with its innovative Search Engine for NFTs that is in line with the core characteristics and values of Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 Search Engine Breakdown
Numbers’ Search Engine for NFTs has two key components: content-based and Web 3.0-based. As a content-based search engine, users can upload a file without knowing its token address or token ID, and the result shows the history and other details associated with this NFT file. In Web 3.0, every content file has a unique address generated from the IPFS distributed web system. During the search, the engine can use this CID to find key information associated with the content file.
The results from Search Engine provide a wealth of information about an NFT, such as its Token history, Token ID, Contract ID, Creator ID, Current Owner ID, and Marketplace links. This information can help users better understand just how “unique” an NFT is based on how many tokens are in circulation. NFT Search Engine can also easily identify potential violations, such as multiple creator addresses.
Currently, Search Engine coverage includes leading marketplaces such as OpenSea, Foundation, Rarible, SuperRare, Refinable, and CaptureClub with hopes of achieving full coverage in the near future. More information about Numbers’ Search Engine for NFTs can be found here.
Importance of Web 3.0 Storage and Retrievability
As NFTs explode in popularity, data behind NFTs will become extremely important, not only for on-chain records, but also for the physical storage behind NFT files. Besides continuously increasing the data coverage and expanding the search engine to other networks such as Binance Smart Chain, the Search Engine will also guarantee the retrievability of NFT files.
Bofu Chen, Founder and CTO of Numbers Protocol, said,
During development, we realized more than 80% of NFTs are actually stored on centralized servers, and 35% of them were even missing and not accessible. While indexing NFTs is a critical first step, accessibility of these digital assets is equally important. For Web 3.0 to thrive, all NFT files should be pinned on decentralized storage such as Filecoin’s NFT Storage (https://nft.storage/). Only when the retrieval of content is guaranteed can NFTs truly represent valuable assets in Web3.
Andrew Woo, Head of Operations at Protocol Labs, said,
We’ve seen an explosion of activity in the NFT space in the past year, reflecting the potential of Web 3.0 and the possibilities for creators and communities. Until now, however, there hasn’t been a great system for indexing these NFTs. Numbers’ NFT search tool will provide greater accessibility and authentication to the space.
We truly believes in the vision and tenets of Web 3.0 and is committed to growing the Web 3.0 ecosystem with its Decentralized Photo Network and Web 3.0 Search Engine for NFTs.
Feel free try out the beta version of Numbers’ NFT Search Engine at https://nftsearch.site/.
