I'm in the target audience. I know what a search engine is. I know how to change my default search engine in all of my browsers, which I know are distinct from search engines. I care about privacy enough that I default to DuckDuckGo, not Google. It would take some convincing, but I'm neither opposed nor unable to pay for a better search engine. I read HN somewhat regularly.
"Hey everyone, I'm working on [commercial product]" from someone who isn't already an active member of a community will be seen as spam most places regardless of big tech influence. A bit of searching finds a couple posts about Neeva on big subreddits, which typically didn't get any traction[0]. Of course, the conspiratorial answer is that reddit lies about votes to suppress things it doesn't like, but I have seen no reason to believe that.
My Mastodon server has seen six posts mentioning it since September 2022. Most of them are tagging Leo Laporte, a well-known tech journalist presumably trying to get him to talk about it. He did[1], but apparently not enough to generate much buzz.
Interesting. What I mean is that forums used to feel welcoming and moderators were much more hands off - usually only acting because of general outcries
People would also usually post from multiple users whereas now it's all about tanking karma
I think the volume of self-promotion in places that allow it has increased to a point that failing to take some action to limit it will lead to a forum most people don't want to participate in more often than not.
This is the first time I've heard of Neeva.