Calls: Send in your ideas. Deadline April 1, 2024
logo

Last update: 2016-09-09

Grant
End: 2018-01

Searx

Searx is an internet metasearch engine that can be easily self-hosted by anyone.

Searx is a free software internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from a significant amount (currently more than 70) search services. A private (or preferably shared) instance of Searx allow you to escape from the so called 'search bubble' created by overzealous personalisation of your search results. It give you a more diverse (or at least alternatively biased) view on the world, by combining the results of a variety of sources without filtering based on your previous searches. Searx also helps to reduce the amount of tracking and passive observation search users are subject to, by offering a layer of proxying isolation.

Web searches reveal a great deal of information that many people consider sensitive and personal, which makes search users (which is pretty much everyone that uses a computer) vulnerable to behavorial targetting and other undesirable treatments. Searx was designed as a defense mechanism to protect your privacy as much as possible. It is an easy to use tool you can run for yourself or for others, on a server or even on a low-powered device such as a Raspberry Pi. Not only does Searx combine search results from a configurable amount of sources, it can also offer basic proxy capabilities so you can search the web without being observed.

Searx searches on your behalf and keeps the tracking. Because you pay for it yourself, there is not need to track nor profiled users. There are many public instances hosted for instance by organisations like La Quadrature Du Net, in addition to private ones. Searx can easily be used over anonymising networks such as Tor for even more online privacy.

Searx is available for free download via: https://asciimoo.github.io/searx.