Any private search engines that aren’t SearxNG? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 days ago by Silly_Goose@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I’ve gotten very into self-hosting (on device, not on a server) my own search engine, but searxng is unbearably clunky to make run on my Gentoo OpenRC machine. Two projects stuck out, 4get and omnisearch, but which of these do you think is the best and do you know other ones?

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[-] sunstoned@lemmus.org 3 points 1 day ago

https://hister.org/

Not a traditional search engine, but reduces the need for one on repeated searches. Your own web traffic is the crawling, saved and indexed locally for future lookups.

[-] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 2 points 23 hours ago

I've been building a search engine for rhe last year. Expect a Q4 release next year, who knows maybe even earlier.

[-] echedeylr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

there is https://marginalia-search.com/

[-] dropdrip@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

YaCy isn't just a peer-to-peer search-engine, it can be run as a non-connected private node as well. The operator decides whether they want to contribute to the larger peer-to-peer network, a private network or as a lone-node as a personal search-engine. However, any search-engine will struggle on lackluster hardware.

[-] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 1 points 23 hours ago

No one uses YaCy and no one ought to. I have a grudge against the developer for creating the worst search engine architecture known to everyone.

[-] SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

None of those - searxng, deGoog, 4get - are private search engines. The are metacrawlers / indexers for things like Google, brave, DuckDuckGo, etc etc.

The difference is not subtle.

They anonymise your request to the underlying index, but the index they're querying is still Google/Brave/DDG etc...so you can still be fingerprinted over time.

If you want a private search engine, the only one that comes to mind in YaCy (which is peer2peer).

If you don't want to self host or p2p, your options are Mojeek (own crawler, index, no tracking), Marginalia (ditto but very niche) and maybe Kagi (which is sort of hybrid).

[-] Buage_@piefed.social 13 points 2 days ago

Kagi's on top ! It's a few bucks per month, but search results are amazing, it surface small websites and block slop.

It even allows you to block useless websites like pinterest

[-] qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

I'd say it's more private to anonymously use google or brave through a hardened web browser with a vpn than logged in to kagi account attached to your payment method.

[-] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

I have heard Kagi just layers their own special sauce atop Google's index?

It is a unique service with a real value prop, I just want to make sure we are accurate here...

[-] unglueclass23@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integration-due-to-the-geopolitical-status-quo Just putting it out there.

[-] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

dud they remove yandex? one of the few good search engines for content that doesn't follow the DMCA?

[-] unglueclass23@programming.dev 0 points 1 day ago

It may be good in some scenarios, but paying for it is unacceptable.

[+] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml -25 points 2 days ago

Kagi is trash. I can't be bothered elaborating.

[-] taco_shale032@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 days ago

Why even bother commenting this if you’re not willing to elaborate?

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 days ago

To make it known that there is this belief, and there is not unanimous support for Kagi.

[-] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I don't have the answer to your qustion, but I like to occasionally consider that there is no such thing as a stupid action, only an action that I don't understand.

Why would someone talk like that?

Some possibilities:

To stem all future criticism of Kagi by making the first and the most at the time visible criticism sound braindead. Thus creating an association that all of criticism is braindead.
To use the reverse psychology to promote Kagi. You say it sucks, and you don't think it's worth your time to even explain it? Well, I am a rebel, so as a fuck you, I will use Kagi.
To further lock in the attention and the mental resources on Kagi. Love it or hate it, be indifferent to it, but here we are thinking about Kagi. Kagi's profile has been raised.

These three immediately jump at me, because I see people preaching Kagi in a manner of an influence op.

So these negs could be part of the op.

Again. Not saying I know. I don't. And I likely won't use Kagi myself. It's just fun to speculate a bit.

[-] mikey@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 days ago

LLM much?

[-] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

That was not an LLM. That said, I do use a chatbot like once a week. Maybe some of their speegh patterns are rubbing off?

[-] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I appreciate your honesty and you seem like you want to do your best. I'm sorry we aren't a more supportive group.

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 day ago

Yes, it has been scientifically proven that you are getting dumber by using an LLM regularly to do your thinking for you. Congratulations.

[-] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

You DO realize that you're firing on your own team, right?

Let's not do that, here. This is our community, it's what you and I make of it.

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 day ago

I am most definitely not on the same team as people that use chatbots so often they start to mimic their slop-style writing techniques. Worry about yourself, you don't get to decide what team I am on, tyvm.

Also, I am not "just being an ass", I am paraphrasing MIT scientific research.

[-] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Once again, this place is your community and my community. You can build your people up or tear them down.

If you aren't here to build community then you should ask yourself what really feeds you.

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip -1 points 20 hours ago

You aren't "building community" either, you are dictating how other people are supposed to think while doing your level best to beat your moral high-horse to death. Stop putting people in boxes for them and get fucked with this cyber-hippy bullshit.

[-] yuki_gassen@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

Pretty please?

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

Price is a big one. That aside I didn't like the interface, I couldn't consistently find the results I was looking for, and again price.

I'd maybe be willing to pay $5 a month for a good search engine. $10 a month even. But $10 a month knowing half my money is paying for bundled AI searches I never wanted nor asked for is a bridge to far. I'm not militantly anti-AI, but I don't want to be forced to pay for it if I want Kagi to be even remotely useful (300 searches is a joke).

[-] yuki_gassen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

300 is low, i agree. but idk, if it's a free product, then YOU are the product. is my data still being used in ways that profit a few and invade my privacy? probably, but less than google i hope.

I am on the anti-AI side of things, by nature of being human. and yeah, there's some AI shit in kagi, as with seemingly all others. but it at least it's opt-in (i think). i've never seen it shoved in my face, which i can't say for example duckduckgo.

can't tell u what price is best for you, or what UI u prefer. but trash? no. google is trash.

[-] Mynameisallen@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 days ago

Kagi is what I wound up going with

[-] matron1049@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Yacy has been around awhile. It can run solo or p2p

[-] aim4harmony@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Xprivo

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago

mind linking to it? duckduckgo literally returns 0 results and i'm not sure what you're referring to

[-] aim4harmony@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Sure. Here is the.link: https://www.xprivo.com/search

Hope this works.

[-] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

https://uruky.com/

[-] unglueclass23@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Uruky is great.

[-] sidebro@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

degoog comes to mind

[-] Silly_Goose@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Never heard of it, do you have a link?

[-] frischkaesbagett@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

https://degoog.org/

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 1 points 2 days ago

not sure how private but i'm using duckduckgo, eTools.ch and 4get.ca these days

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026

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