Self-hosted can't protect you from IP or behavioral tracking. You need lots of users on the same instance for that. That, or force its traffic through a VPN.
Self-hosted can't protect you from IP or behavioral tracking. You need lots of users on the same instance for that. That, or force its traffic through a VPN.
This. Everything else might be even worse than using the original (e.g. host this on a VPS and you normally have a dynamic IP, you provide them with a static ip)
protect you from IP
but I dont care. I just want to have centralized filter for my search results and ban all the comparison sites and pinterest.
I think searXNG is better, with more flexibility like banning stupid auto comparison sites, and SEO spam blogs.
But if you don't want to self host, brave search looks to be pretty good, and is actually independent unlike startpage and duckduckgo.
banning stupid auto comparison sites, and SEO spam blogs
Could you elaborate on this? I'm losing my mind trying to find anything because of it.
Unless I’m mistaken he’s talking about sites who manage to sneak up in search rankings without ever providing what you’re searching for. I don’t doubt someone else can elaborate though.
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We really are ripe for a new disruptive search engine. My guess would be paid so search results and not add revenue drive the development.
super intriguing post, thanks for taking the time to write it! and if you don't mind, two followup questions:
what were the conflicting directions quora could've been taken to? and any details you'd be willing to share about behind the scenes talk? as somebody who often had the feeling that quora could be so, so much more (automated answer engine fed by all answers) than it currently is (a forum that weirdly feels like half-dead google groups and that's used by dudes to creepily hit on girls), I always wondered about the people who run it.
and the second question, what solution did you attempt with your raspi? trying something similar with a pi w, so less power to worry about, but any heads-up would be welcome!
Ah sorry, I meant how can one use searXNG to get rid of them, thanks tho
The host replacement plugin does it, just replace it with nothing and it will be removed.
That's a godsend.
On my instance I removed all Amazon's results, as it polluted the page results whenever one wanted to look for a "real" review of some product (and I wouldn't buy anything on Amazon anyway)...
searXNG
I like it better too. For me, it pulls in better searches then Whoogle.
Is the original searX no longer maintained?
Its maintained, but SearXNG's development is faster and has a better theme.
I personally use SearX instead of XNG. The dark mode broke on XNG and the OG works just fine.
Could you please create a github issue so that we can take a look at your bug: https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues?
It's in maintenance mode, which means no new features are being added, only the bug fixes are merged into the code.
and is actually independent unlike startpage and duckduckgo.
I know System1 owns Startpage, but who's got their fingers in DDG?
Microsoft. See news :)
The news where they very explicitly state that search results are still private but their search syndication agreement with Microsoft doesn't allow them to block some trackers in DDG's non-search products?
It's a smaller controversy than almost any of the Brave ones, at least IMO.
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Brave was cool before all of the crypto bullshit
Yeah, that's when I jettisoned it.
It’s funny because if it was JUST a crypto wallet that would be cool. Especially syncing across devices. I don’t have any crypto, but I could see how that would be really helpful. But then they added the BAT and all that and I instantly knew it was all cryptobro stuff and was hearing towards supporting that market (kinda like discord moved away from gamers)
These can be disabled. What's more, IIRC they are opt-in.
Whether it's a small controversy or a big controversy, I'm more than disappointed in DDG. Okay it's a gag contract, they couldn't and still can't give proper information about it. I generally find it a mistake in itself to do business with Microsoft when you put the highest priority on privacy in your product. my 2 cents
I agree, they shouldn't have agreed to those terms even if it meant Bing results were gone or less useful. But even with that I haven't seen a better alternative to privacy-oriented search pop up unless you're willing to self-host. Brave is sort of an option, but they've done enough weird stuff over the years that I don't see them as a real alternative, even if they seem to be getting more attention lately.
I'm with you on that. I also don't understand a lot of things Brave has been doing lately, just like many other projects that consider user privacy a top priority. It's really just filtering out what's best for you. That's exactly why custom hosting should be taken more seriously and become more widespread. That's why we all hang out here ;)
DDG relies on Bing, and start page relies on Google.
brave search has an independent index.
Yeah, but AFAIC, Brave has enough of their own shady without being under the thumb of one of the bigger scumbags, so they're a non-starter for me.
Meh, all of the "shady things" are very minor.
Firefox did the same or more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJGF3syQy4
I'm sure you have a point, but you're failing to make it clearly.
I never said you couldn't or shouldn't use Brave. Knock yourself out.
I said I'm not going to. I don't know why you think talking about Firefox would change that.
But my favorite part of Google searches is checking the top 5 results, which are ads, to see how many of the links lead to a virus.
I have this installed. It is very slow and 1/2 the time it returns errors when using Tor for searches. SearX is better.
I’d definitely advise you stand up both and try them out.
It is very slow
Mine works absolutely fantastic. very fast. wonder what's going on with yours?
Good question. I use whoogle on docker with a debian 11 image. When tor is disabled its fast, but that eliminates the purpose of it. Searx, when proxied through tor, is fast for me all the time and has better search options in my opinion. I'll try using it on a rocky linux docker image and see if performance improves and get back to you.
good stuff, good stuff. I'm actually working on trying to make an oracle cloud hosted SearX instance, but my brain is fried so I'm gonna wait until the weekend after a good night's sleep to tackle that again lol
I have a script you can use that can setup a docker image within just a few minutes. I have a whoogle one, too. If you'd like both, let me know.
I'll take em! ty
I want that too, please.
Guys, I haven't forgotten about you. I'll have it to you by Saturday afternoon EST.
This is better than any other “privacy first” search engines afaik. (At least the idea, not the inplemention maybe). I’ve tought of exactly the same idea but the only issue I’ve faced was how people can trust this app. So here we are, if the application is hosted by you, and you can see what you run on your server, no need to trust anybody. Kudos to the creater. I love it!!!
If you are worried about tracking by Google, then this still exposes your IP to Google since this has to go out to Google to get the info. If you use a Google account from the same IP then they may be able to tie them together (actually unlikely they would do so since they can't be sure it isn't someone else without a Google account but they could).
Is this much different than using StartPage?
For one thing, it’s self-hosted. Similar to searx except limited to google.
I’ve never used startpage but upon ~~googling~~ whoogling it I found a post saying it’s owned/operated by system1 which is a digital marketing/advertising company, which goes to show why self-hosting is important these days.
Didn't know it was owned by System1, thatd a good enough reason on its own. thanks for the info
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do you have it accessible just internally only?
Anyway to use this as my "default search" on my phone (android)?
I did it on Firefox for Android.
I’m sure it wasn’t the intended use, but I use Whoogle as my “canary” image (along with cyberchef) when doing something like setting up a new k8s cluster, since it is dirt simple with no database components or any other bells and whistles.
It’s also my default search engine and I Google like a fiend so I’ll know within a day or so if something went wrong upstream.
Remeber to proxy your searches or route them tru tor :)
1 year user
is literally perfect
Finally! A selfhosting Projects that doesn't require me to Install that docker bullshit.
Wow! I'm sure you've tried lots of selfhosted software! Almost 99% of them don't require docker!
99% require docker.
Wow! You convinced me!
Agreed.
Docker is the QR code of servers.
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Then you do not understand the security implications of those two technologies.
Is it still frowned upon to run this outside of your own network? What about searX?
Still doesn't solve the problem of google manipulated results.
Is it possible to filter out any shop selling the thing I am looking for? I'm looking for discussions to research about it, not the best price.
Edit: Ah I see, this does only purify results, not filter it.
If you know the domains, you can block them in searXNG
Goodbye forever, Expert Sex Change!
Yes, but if you need a sex change, it's better if you call an expert. Trust me.
Oh God yes!