(Searx private search engine web page)
Do you know Searx? Visit www.searx.me and you can search the whole internet better than Google. Searx's slogan is "A privacy-respecting, hackable search engine". It is better because it is more complete, secure, and respecting your privacy. First, Searx gives you search results from different search engines, including Google and Yahoo!, you can choose. Second, it is a free software that is recommended by a lof of people in security-privacy communities. Third, it searches anonymously and privately for you without recording your user data. More than that, unlike Google, Searx operates cleanly without ads nor online trackers against you. I divided this article into 3 parts as usual to make it easier for everybody to read. By writing this, I believe Searx is worthy to be introduced to all internet users. Let's go!
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Part 1. Searching
I typed search keyword "ubuntu" and
then Searx would give me results:
See small texts under every result and picture box on the right? Those indicate these Searx results came from Bing, Google, Duckduckgo, and Wikipedia.
Part 2. Setting
Searx search engine is configurable. You can decide what search engines to be used, change between light/dark theme, enable SafeSearch, and many more.(1) Click Preferences button on Searx page then you see all the settings.
(3) You can change theme. www.searx.me provides several themes you may choose.
(4) You can change search result language. Just like Google, you can search in your own language keywords.
(5) You can enable SafeSearch. This filters things unsuitable for children.
(6) Set Searx as default search engine: go to Mozilla Addons Repository and find searx there. For example, install Searx.me addon by Tim Harrison.
Part 3. Instances
In Google, the www.google.com is the only one instance of Google Search. In Searx, the www.searx.me is one among many instances of Searx. This means we can use multiple Searx search engines administered by different people we can choose one we love. This also means there is active list of Searx Public Instances with ranking which one is faster or more secure. However, I recommend you to keep using Searx.me in the beginning.
(1) Official list of instances: Searx-instances
(2) Some instances with Google Search source active (I found these 27 October 2019):
- https://search.fossdaily.xyz
- https://searx.org
(3) You can create your own Google Search on your computer! Because Searx is free software, similar to WordPress, you can install it on a server (or an XAMPP localhost). Read official documentation to do so.
Now, you can enjoy your new life to search online with Searx instead of Google. Happy browsing!