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
it's like using google from 2000's; thanks for sharing
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.
As someone who hosts an instance, news to me lol
Edit: Developer says this can't be done currently? Reddit comment
I really wish there was a privacy oriented search engine with decent search results ...
Man, i wish i had the same experiencr
The couple of times I tried it out, the search results where barely accurate
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.
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.
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.
Yep, a VPN is a good solution.
How does it work self hosting? Is it querying other search engines or just maintaining a database on your server?
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.
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.
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.
Does it have a widget? I want to integrate it in my workflow on my phone
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.
Self host it, it's nothing to set up.
Doesn't that defeat the only benefit - anonymity?
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.
Kagi works great for me. 100% worth it, best engine I've tried.
From what i understand, you need an account to use that, dosn't seem very private.
Did anyone else not know Lycos was still around? Lycos is still around. Seems not that bad. No AI stuff.
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.
The best thing is to self host it, to have better uptimes and custom default settings
Using it on my own server since... Ages ☺️ Can only recommend it. Even though google's results are often... Weird up to completely unhelpful.
Dig out old PC from somewhere, install some Linux distribution, Tailscale and Docker/Podman, and install SearX that way.
What if you want to use the computer for something other than Google searching?
Install the other stuff on it
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.
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
I'd use it if its public instances didn't get rate-limited so often
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
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.
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
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.
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)
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?
We make money from our API, what they're referencing is a beta ads programme which was running
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.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)