Each search result is given as a direct link to the respective site, rather than a tracked redirect link as used by Google. In addition, when available, these direct links are accompanied by cached and/or proxied links that allow viewing results pages without actually visiting the sites in question. The cached links point to saved versions of a page on the Wayback Machine, while the proxied links allow viewing the current live page via a Searx-based web proxy. In addition to the general search, the engine also features tabs to search within specific domains: files, images, Information technology, maps, music, news, science, social media, and videos.[12][13]
Users can run private instances of Searx on their own computer, but there are also many public, user-run, Searx instances,[14] some of which are available as Torhidden services.[14] Meta-Searx instances can also be used to forward the search query to a random public instance.[14] A public API is available for Searx,[15][16] as well as Firefox search provider plugins.[17]
As of 7 September 2023, the Searx GitHub repository has been archived, stating that SearX is no longer maintained.[18] The SearXNG repository remains open.[19]
Search engines and other settings
Across all categories, Searx can fetch search results from about 82 different engines. This includes major search engines and site-specific searches like Bing, Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Yahoo, and Yandex.[20] The engines used for each search category can be set via a "preferences" interface, and these settings will be saved in a cookie in the user's web browser, rather than on the server side, since for privacy reasons, Searx does not implement a user login model. Other settings such as the search interface language and the search results language (over 20 languages are available) can be set the same way.[11]
In addition to the preferences cookie, it is possible on each query to modify the engines used, search categories selected, and/or languages to search in by specifying one or more of the following textual search operators before the search keywords.[21]
!category — Search the specified category instead of the default ones.
?category — Search the specified category in addition to the default ones.
!engine — Search the specified engine instead of the default ones.
?engine — Search the specified engine in addition to the default ones.
:language — Search for results in the specified language instead of the default one.
The ! and ? operators can be specified more than once to select multiple categories or engines, for example !google !deviantart ?images :japanese cow.
Instances
Any user may run their own instance of Searx,[22] which can be done to maximize privacy, avoid congestion on public instances, preserve customized settings (even if browser cookies are cleared), allow auditing of the source code being run, and more.[23] Users may include their Searx instances on the editable list of all public instances, or keep them private.[20][23] It is also possible to add custom search engines to a self-hosted instance that are not available on the public instances.[24]
In 2019, Google has begun to block some self-hosted instances. This included some of the IP addresses used by searx.me from queries that result in a google (unexpected crash: CAPTCHA required) error.[25] In response, some instances have been modified to silently skip trying to search with Google even when it's the only engine specified.[26][27]
In the middle of 2021, some contributors of SearX forked the repo to SearXNG with a view to provide faster debugging and fixes of engine errors.[28] SearXNG is for users that need a faster upstream development time with fewer bugs.[29][19] User theme, engine reliability and anonymous metrics are the most notable changes in SearXNG.[19]
^"!google cow - searx". searx.info. Retrieved 2019-07-15. Sorry! we didn't find any results. Please use another query or search in more categories.[permanent dead link]
^"!google cow - searx". search.disroot.org. Retrieved 2019-07-15. Sorry! we didn't find any results. Please use another query or search in more categories.
