 SearXNG home page with the default dark theme | |
| Initial release | March 27, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Repository | github |
| Written in | Python, HTML |
| Operating system | Linux, FreeBSD, macOS |
| Predecessor | Searx |
| Standard(s) | OpenSearch |
| Type | Metasearch engine |
| License | GNU Affero General Public License |
| Website | docs searx |
SearXNG is a free and open-source federated metasearch engine forked from Searx. [1] SearXNG supports over 70 different search engines. [2] Similar to Searx, it does not collect information about users. [3]
SearXNG is federated, and as such is hosted by several instances, public and private. Private instances are hosted on a local network, or run on the user's desktop computer itself, and are designed to be used by one person or a small number of people. Public instances are hosted on public web servers and are designed to be used by anyone like a typical search engine. [4] [2] A list of public instances are available at searx
SearXNG can separate results into multiple categories, including the standard categories of "Web, "Images," "Videos," and "News," as well as the non-standard categories of "Social Media," "Music," "Files," "IT," and "Science." [6]
SearXNG features several customization options, which can be configured server-side or client-side, including filtering which engines to use, content filtering, and language preferences. [4]
As a metasearch engine, SearXNG functions by sending queries to upstream search engines and returning them to the user. Engines include Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Qwant. [5] [7] More than 70 different search engines are supported. [2]
SearXNG removes private data from requests sent to search services. Result pages do not include advertisements or referral links. [8] SearXNG itself stores little to no information that can be used to identify users. [3] [2]
Search queries can be routed through the Tor network. [4]
A metasearch engine is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of a web search engine to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. Sufficient data is gathered, ranked, and presented to the users.
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.
Startpage is a Dutch search engine company that highlights privacy as its distinguishing feature. The website advertises that it allows users to obtain Google Search results while protecting users' privacy by not storing personal information or search data and removing all trackers. Startpage.com also includes an Anonymous View browsing feature that allows users the option to open search results via proxy for increased anonymity.
Federated search retrieves information from a variety of sources via a search application built on top of one or more search engines. A user makes a single query request which is distributed to the search engines, databases or other query engines participating in the federation. The federated search then aggregates the results that are received from the search engines for presentation to the user. Federated search can be used to integrate disparate information resources within a single large organization ("enterprise") or for the entire web.
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DuckDuckGo is an American software company with a focus on online privacy. The flagship product is a search engine that has been praised by privacy advocates. Subsequent products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser.
Web tracking is the practice by which operators of websites and third parties collect, store and share information about visitors' activities on the World Wide Web. Analysis of a user's behaviour may be used to provide content that enables the operator to infer their preferences and may be of interest to various parties, such as advertisers. Web tracking can be part of visitor management.
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Dooble is a free and open-source web browser that was created to offer improved privacy for users. Currently, Dooble is available for FreeBSD, Haiku, Linux, macOS, OS/2, and Windows. Dooble uses Qt for its user interface and abstraction from the operating system and processor architecture. As a result, Dooble should be portable to any system that supports OpenSSL, POSIX threads, Qt, SQLite, and other libraries.
Waterfox is a free and open-source web browser and fork of Firefox. It claims to be ethical and user-centric, emphasizing performance and privacy. There are official Waterfox releases for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. It was initially created to provide official 64-bit support, back when Firefox was only available for 32-bit systems.
Web search engines are listed in tables below for comparison purposes. The first table lists the company behind the engine, volume and ad support and identifies the nature of the software being used as free software or proprietary software. The second and third table lists internet privacy aspects along with other technical parameters, such as whether the engine provides personalization.
MetaGer is a metasearch engine focused on protecting users' privacy. Based in Germany, and hosted as a cooperation between the German NGO 'SUMA-EV - Association for Free Access to Knowledge' and the University of Hannover, the system is built on 24 small-scale web crawlers under MetaGer's own control. In September 2013, MetaGer launched MetaGer.net, an English-language version of their search engine.
Ecosia is a search engine based in Berlin, Germany. The company uses renewable energy to power its servers and invests its profits in tree-planting projects, aiming to absorb more CO2 than it emits.
qutebrowser is a QtWebEngine web browser for Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems with Vim-style key bindings and a minimal GUI. It is keyboard-driven and is inspired by similar software such as Vimperator and dwb. It uses DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. qutebrowser is included in the native repositories of Linux distributions such as Fedora and Arch Linux. qutebrowser is developed by Florian Bruhin, for which he received a CH Open Source award in 2016.
Cliqz was a privacy-oriented web browser and search engine developed by Cliqz GmbH and majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media. It was available as a desktop and mobile web browser as well as an extension for Firefox itself.
Searx is a discontinued free and open-source metasearch engine, available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of protecting the privacy of its users. 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. By default, Searx queries are submitted via HTTP POST, to prevent users' query keywords from appearing in webserver logs. Searx was inspired by the Seeks project, though it does not implement Seeks' peer-to-peer user-sourced results ranking.
Search engine privacy is a subset of internet privacy that deals with user data being collected by search engines. Both types of privacy fall under the umbrella of information privacy. Privacy concerns regarding search engines can take many forms, such as the ability for search engines to log individual search queries, browsing history, IP addresses, and cookies of users, and conducting user profiling in general. The collection of personally identifiable information (PII) of users by search engines is referred to as tracking.
Brave Search is a search engine developed by Brave Software, Inc., and is the default search engine for the Brave web browser in certain countries.
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