Searx

Searx
Searx logo
Searx Web interface
Developer(s) Adam Tauber (alias asciimoo)[1]
Stable release
0.14.0[2] / February 18, 2018 (2018-02-18)
Repository github.com/asciimoo/searx
Written in Python
Type Metasearch engine
License Free software (AGPLv3)
Website searx.me

Searx (/sɜːrks/) is a free metasearch engine,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of protecting the privacy of its users.[11][12][13][14] To this end, Searx does not share users' IP addresses or search history with the search engines from which it gathers results. Tracking cookies served by the search engines are blocked, preventing user-profiling-based results modification.[15][16][17] By default, Searx queries are submitted via HTTP POST, to prevent users' query keywords from appearing in webserver logs.[18] Searx was inspired by the Seeks project,[19] though it does not implement Seeks' peer-to-peer user-sourced results ranking.

Each search result is given as a direct link to the respective site, rather than a tracked redirect link as used by Google. In addition, when available, these direct links are accompanied by "cached" and/or "proxied" links that allow viewing results pages without actually visiting the sites in question. The "cached" links point to saved versions of a page on archive.org, while the "proxied" links allow viewing the current live page via a Searx-based web proxy. In addition to the general search, the engine also features tabs to search within specific domains: files, images, IT, maps, music, news, science, social media, and videos.[20][21]

Along with the most well-known instance at searx.me, Searx also features dozens of user-run instances at their own URLs.[22][23] A service called Searxes can be used to search a different random Searx instance with each query.[24] Searx.me is also available as a Tor hidden service.[22] A public API is available.[25][26][27]

Search engines and other settings

Across all categories, Searx can fetch search results from about 70 different engines. This includes major search engines and site-specific searches like Bing, Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Yahoo, and Yandex.[28] The engines used for each search category can be set via a "preferences" interface, and these settings will be saved in a cookie in the user's browser, rather than on the server side, since for privacy reasons, Searx does not implement a user login model. Other settings such as the search interface language and the search results language (over 20 languages are available) can be set the same way.[18]

In addition to the preferences cookie, it is possible on each query to modify the engines used, search categories selected, and/or languages to search in by specifying one or more of the following textual search operators before the search keywords.[29]

  • !category — Search the specified category instead of the default ones.
  • ?category — Search the specified category in addition to the default ones.
  • !engine — Search the specified engine instead of the default ones.
  • ?engine — Search the specified engine in addition to the default ones.
  • :language — Search for results in the specified language instead of the default one.

The ! and ? operators can be specified more than once to select multiple categories or engines, for example !google !deviantart ?images :japanese cow.

Instances

Any user may run their own instance of Searx,[30][31][32] which can be done to maximize privacy, to avoid congestion on public instances, to preserve customized settings even if browser cookies are cleared, to allow auditing of the source code being run, etc.[33][34][35] Users may include their Searx instances on the editable list of all public instances, or keep them private.[28][33] It is also possible to add custom search engines to a self-hosted instance that are not available on the public instances.[36]

References

  1. ↑ "asciimoo (Adam Tauber)". GitHub.
  2. ↑ "asciimoo/searx". GitHub.
  3. ↑ "Searx metasearch engine | Trisquel GNU/Linux - Run free!". trisquel.info. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  4. ↑ "Libre Projects". libreprojects.net. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  5. ↑ "Searx | Me and my Shadow". Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  6. ↑ "New search kid on the block | Glynsky and Pete". Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  7. ↑ James, Author (2016-09-03). "SearX for Anonymous Search". IslandEarth. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  8. ↑ Kühnast, Charly. "Peppered with Hits » Linux Magazine". Linux Magazine. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  9. ↑ "5 Best Search Engines That Respect Your Privacy - BestVPN.com". BestVPN.com. 2016-12-23. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  10. ↑ "Motori di ricerca alternativi | Signor D". Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  11. ↑ "searx, selfhosted search engine with your own privacy | Freedif". freedif.org. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  12. ↑ says, Nobody_Holme (2017-08-10). "Self-hosted search option is a new approach to bursting the filter bubble". Naked Security. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  13. ↑ "What Is the Best Search Engine for Privacy? - Make Tech Easier". Make Tech Easier. 2017-04-03. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  14. ↑ "Searx: self-hosted web metasearch engine – Tuxdiary". Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  15. ↑ "New fast and private searX instance for private websearches - Tapatalk". www.tapatalk.com. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  16. ↑ administrator, Acc. "Як захистити свої дані в інтернеті: 11 корисних додатків". Новини АСС (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  17. ↑ "Searx: Die konfigurierbare Suchmaschine, die deine Privatsphäre respektiert". t3n News (in German). Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  18. 1 2 "preferences - searx.me". searx.me. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  19. ↑ "about - searx.me". searx.me. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  20. ↑ "A Primer on Staying Secure and Anonymous on the Dark Web". TechSpot. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  21. ↑ "Searx 0.10.0: Die eigene Suchmaschine auf einem Raspberry Pi - Golem.de" (in German). Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  22. 1 2 "Searx instances · asciimoo/searx Wiki · GitHub". GitHub. 2017-08-29. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  23. ↑ "searx-stats". stats.searx.oe5tpo.com. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  24. ↑ "searxes.danwin1210.me". Searxes.
  25. ↑ "Search API — searx 0.12.0 documentation". asciimoo.github.io. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  26. ↑ "Building a Keyword Monitoring Pipeline with Python, Pastebin and Searx | Automating OSINT Blog". www.automatingosint.com. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  27. ↑ "Building a Keyword Monitoring Pipeline with Python, Pastebin and Searx - bellingcat". bellingcat. 2017-04-21. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  28. 1 2 Tauber, Adam (2017-08-30). "searx: Privacy-respecting metasearch engine". Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  29. ↑ "Search syntax — searx 0.12.0 documentation". asciimoo.github.io. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  30. ↑ "My Searx instance - Logan Marchione". Logan Marchione. 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  31. ↑ "New fast and private searX instance in Europe for private websearches • r/privacy". reddit. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  32. ↑ "How to setup your own privacy respecting search engine in a couple of hours with a free ssl certificate • r/privacytoolsIO". reddit. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  33. 1 2 "Why use a private instance? — searx 0.12.0 documentation". asciimoo.github.io. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  34. ↑ "Privacy advantages of running my own searx instance • r/privacytoolsIO". reddit. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  35. ↑ "Searx.me is overloaded. Privacytools.io should link to just the instances page or randomize. • r/privacytoolsIO". reddit. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  36. ↑ "Engine overview — searx 0.12.0 documentation". asciimoo.github.io. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
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