A new app-slash-search engine wants to overhaul how fans explore and engage with the franchises, characters and other cultural phenomena they care about. Unlike traditional search engines or social platforms, Lore prioritizes depth over speed, assembling scattered fan knowledge — theories, timelines, essays, connections and debates — into a single organized and customizable space. As founder Zehra Naqvi told TechCrunch, "Lore is our attempt to rebuild the Library of Alexandria for the fandom age."
The platform addresses a growing frustration among dedicated fans who currently piece together their understanding from fragmented sources: Google's surface-level summaries, ChatGPT's potentially unreliable outputs, TikTok's algorithmic constraints, Reddit's chaos and Twitter's toxicity. Where existing platforms force fans to manually stitch together context across dozens of tabs, Lore consolidates everything into one interface — "a toolbox for your curiosity." Beyond search, users can build timelines and relationship maps, save rabbit holes into custom folders, and explore content spoiler-free if they're not caught up.
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Lore's emergence reflects a broader shift in how digital communities organize around shared interests, moving away from algorithm-driven feeds toward purpose-built platforms that prioritize meaningful engagement over viral moments. As consumers increasingly fragment into micro-communities centered on niche passions, they're demanding tools that serve depth of knowledge rather than breadth of content.
For brands, this signals an opportunity to rethink how to support passionate communities. Not by shouting louder on existing platforms, but by creating dedicated spaces that genuinely cater to how fans want to explore, connect and contribute to whatever matters (deeply) to them.