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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ColdWater@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

actually awesome and fast search engine (depending on which instance you use) with no trashy AI and ADs results also great for privacy, if you don't know which instance to use go to https://searx.space/ and choose an instance closest to you

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[-] g1ya777@lemmy.world 1 points 47 minutes ago

I really wish there was a privacy oriented search engine with decent search results ...

[-] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 3 points 1 hour ago

Aren't all search queries available to whoever hosts an instance? In my eyes this is much worse to privacy and a much bigger risk unless you really know who is behind your chosen instance. I would trust some a company a bit more with safeguarding this information so it does not leak to some random guy.

[-] macgyver@federation.red 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

As someone who hosts an instance, news to me lol

Edit: Developer says this can't be done currently? Reddit comment

[-] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 hours ago

Man, i wish i had the same experiencr

The couple of times I tried it out, the search results where barely accurate

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Can someone explain the meaning of the name and the people having this project please?

You're trusting how information is filtered and funneled to you with a search tool, but a change to take lightly. Google sucks, but they have a lot to lose, a lot of eyes on them and I know generally their base motivations.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago

Fortunately, you can read through the source code of SearxNG and even modify it - provided that you also publish the modified version to your users if you host it publicly.

You can run your own instance, public or private. Or you can use a public instance.

Internally, it uses other search engines, rather than crawling the entire web and indexing everything.

[-] RatzChatsubo@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

Does it have a widget? I want to integrate it in my workflow on my phone

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Been rocking self-hosted Searxng for the last 3 weeks now as my default search engine; it's as good or better than DDG and certainly better than Google. Results I need are usually within the first three items, no extraneous shit.

I thought I'd just try it out, but it's staying. The ability to tune the background engines is awesome. My search history is private (though I wasn't that worried about DDG, there was no way in fuck I was using Kagi) since it's running it's searches via a VPN and returning me results locally.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Keep in mind that to protect your privacy you should also share your instance with others. All the searches are still linked to an IP which can be abused as well.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Yes, that's the purpose of the VPN. It's out there mixed in with everyone else that's using that exit node.

Honestly, it's not too much of a concern to me, I'm not doing anything illegal or naughty, it's just making sure I'm not part of the dataset.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 1 points 54 minutes ago

Yep, a VPN is a good solution.

[-] Corgana@startrek.website 1 points 3 hours ago

How does it work self hosting? Is it querying other search engines or just maintaining a database on your server?

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Its all calls to other engines, that you can choose and tune. So its making those calls and filtering out shit like AI results, and then ranking it to return back to you. Seems to do a good job.

[-] alehc@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Kagi works great for me. 100% worth it, best engine I've tried.

[-] g1ya777@lemmy.world 1 points 46 minutes ago

From what i understand, you need an account to use that, dosn't seem very private.

[-] Shareni@programming.dev 4 points 4 hours ago

It's ok at best, when it works. When it runs out of API hits for the day at noon, you need to use something like https://searx.neocities.org/ and retype your search multiple times until you manage to hit an instance that can actually perform a search.

Also, no suggestions.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Self host it, it's nothing to set up.

[-] Shareni@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

Doesn't that defeat the only benefit - anonymity?

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 1 points 50 minutes ago

Not if it runs the queries it sends out via a VPN where it mingles with thousands of other requests. An API call doesn't have the disadvantages of browser fingerprinting, cookies, etc that are used to build a background of a user browsing to your search engine and track their searches. Also, there is no feedback to the search engine about which result you choose to use. If you allow outside users, it would further muddy the waters.

Ideally, you'd have it run random searches when not being used to further obfuscate the source.

[-] macabrett@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 hours ago

Did anyone else not know Lycos was still around? Lycos is still around. Seems not that bad. No AI stuff.

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago

I have it running on my server, and honestly... I almost love it more than kagi. Still evaluating both, to make a decision by the end of the year.

[-] Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 hours ago

4get.ca has been great for me.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

The best thing is to self host it, to have better uptimes and custom default settings

[-] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago

Using it on my own server since... Ages ☺️ Can only recommend it. Even though google's results are often... Weird up to completely unhelpful.

[-] Mixel@szmer.info 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I use ononoki for almost a half year without effort.

[-] DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Dig out old PC from somewhere, install some Linux distribution, Tailscale and Docker/Podman, and install SearX that way.

[-] pinkystew@reddthat.com 1 points 6 hours ago

What if you want to use the computer for something other than Google searching?

[-] elfahor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 6 hours ago

Install the other stuff on it

[-] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 4 points 13 hours ago

I checked it out, but most of the public instances I looked at use google + bing. I think I only came across one that used Mojeek, but they deranked it so google results were still at the top.

Yeah you can customize them -- if you never clear your cookies.

Pretty much need to self-host it to customize it.

[-] helpmyusernamewontfi@lemmy.today 2 points 10 hours ago

if you never clear your cookies.

They allow you to use a link instead for saving settings, which can also be used to set as your default search engine

[-] usernameusername@lemm.ee 9 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I'd use it if its public instances didn't get rate-limited so often

[-] kaiyo@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago

I mean it's often better than nothing, but it is a meta search that still often uses Google or Bing to gather results. IMHO, cut off the need for that data on the whole and use an option like Mojeek

[-] Steve@communick.news 56 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

For all their talk of doing things different with their own index and rankings. Mojeek is following exactly what Google did. It's still an ad based business model that makes users into products to be sold to advertisers. They're good now, while still trying to build market share. But once their investors get hungry, the enshitification will commence.

[-] Mojeek@lemmy.ml 14 points 9 hours ago

we make money mainly from our api, our investors are patient private capital and we don't take vc, appreciate your point but these are fundamentally different situations, our ads (when they run) will also be contextual so more of a ddg situation than a "makes users into products to be sold to advertisers"

fair enough if it's not for you though

[-] Steve@communick.news 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

API index access is an important difference.
If it was only that, without public facing ad driven search, I'd be more impressed.

Maybe if you removed the adds, and severely rate limited your own public facing search, so it's more of a demo than an actual service. This would force you to solely make money off the API access, without directly competing against those customers.

That would be an honest buisness model. One that doesn't turn users into eyeballs for advertising. Which seems to me, to be the most insidious problem of the modern internet.

[-] Mojeek@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Agree to disagree here, but I'll refer to Cory Doctorow for a contextual vs behavioral/tracking ads comparison, one which is very good: https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/05/behavioral-v-contextual/#contextual-ads (applied to the media, but the general thread is relevant)

[-] pinkystew@reddthat.com 4 points 6 hours ago

I don't know if the comparison is inaccurate.

You make money from advertising to your users ("ddg situation" notwithstanding), are beholden to your investors (private status notwithstanding) and need to see more users to increase revenue. The person above you is saying that this model is what will drive you to eventually be as bad as Google. Do you understand?

[-] Mojeek@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

We make money from our API, what they're referencing is a beta ads programme which was running

[-] eugenia@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

Do you have topics that are censored? I searched for my reddit post "what I've learnt from the mantis aliens", and it does not show up in your results. Neither at google's. But it does on other search engines. The ufo/alien stuff are censored in most search engines, while there isn't a reason to be. That is how I judge search engines. And Mojeek doesn't give me the results I asked for.

[-] Mojeek@lemmy.ml 9 points 7 hours ago

Reddit doesn't allow us to crawl: https://www.reddit.com/robots.txt

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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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