| Searx | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Searx web interface | |
| Developer | Adam Tauber (aliasasciimoo)[1] |
| Initial release | January 22, 2014; 12 years ago (2014-01-22)[2] |
| Stable release | |
| Written in | Python |
| Successor | SearXNG |
| Type | Metasearch engine |
| License | AGPL-3.0-or-later |
| Website | searx |
| Repository | github |
Searx (/sɜːrks/; stylized assearX) is a discontinuedfree andopen-sourcemetasearch engine,[4] available under theGNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of protecting theprivacy of its users.[5][6][7] To this end, Searx does not share users'IP addresses or search history with thesearch engines from which it gathers results.Tracking cookies served by the search engines are blocked, preventinguser-profiling-based results modification.[8][9] By default, Searx queries are submitted viaHTTP POST,[a] to prevent users' query keywords from appearing in webserver logs.[10][11] Searx was inspired by theSeeks project,[10] though it does not implement Seeks'peer-to-peer user-sourced resultsranking.
Each search result is given as a direct link to the respective site, rather than atracked redirect link as used byGoogle. 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 theWayback Machine, while the proxied links allow viewing the current live page via a Searx-basedweb proxy. In addition to the general search, the engine also features tabs to search within specific domains: files, images,Information technology, maps, music, news, science, social media, and videos.[12][13]
Users can run private instances of Searx on their own computer, but there are also many public, user-run, Searx instances,[14] some of which are available asTorhidden services.[14] Meta-Searx instances can also be used to forward the search query to a random public instance.[14] A publicAPI is available for Searx,[15][16] as well asFirefox search provider plugins.[17]
As of 7 September 2023, the SearxGitHub repository has been archived, stating that SearX is no longer maintained.[18] TheSearXNG repository remains open.[19]
Across all categories, Searx can fetch search results from about 82 different engines. This includes major search engines and site-specific searches likeBing,Google,Reddit,Wikipedia,Yahoo, andYandex.[20] 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 web browser, rather than on the server side, since for privacy reasons, Searx does not implement auser 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.[11]
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 operatorsbefore the search keywords.[21]
!category — Search the specifiedcategory instead of the default ones.?category — Search the specifiedcategory in addition to the default ones.!engine — Search the specifiedengine instead of the default ones.?engine — Search the specifiedengine in addition to the default ones.:language — Search for results in the specifiedlanguage 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.
Any user may run their own instance of Searx,[22] which can be done to maximize privacy, avoid congestion on public instances, preserve customized settings (even if browser cookies are cleared), allow auditing of the source code being run, and more.[23] Users may include their Searx instances on the editable list of all public instances, or keep them private.[20][23] It is also possible to add custom search engines to aself-hosted instance that are not available on the public instances.[24]In 2019, Google has begun to block some self-hosted instances. This included some of the IP addresses used by searx.me from queries that result in agoogle (unexpected crash: CAPTCHA required) error.[25] In response, some instances have been modified to silently skip trying to search with Google even when it's the only engine specified.[26][27]
In the middle of 2021, some contributors of SearX forked the repo toSearXNG with a view to provide faster debugging and fixes of engine errors.[28] SearXNG is for users that need a faster upstream development time with fewer bugs.[29][19] User theme, engine reliability and anonymous metrics are the most notable changes in SearXNG.[19]
Sorry! we didn't find any results. Please use another query or search in more categories.[permanent dead link]
Sorry! we didn't find any results. Please use another query or search in more categories.
| Search engines | |
|---|---|
| News |
|
| File storage and file sharing | |
| Email and instant messaging | |
| Social media and forums | |
| Darknet markets | |
| Archives | |
| Activism | |
| Operating systems | |
| Government | |
| Pornography | |
| Other | |
