How To: Get the Best of WebSearching (+Freedom+Privacy)

[Digit]

here's
some tips for websearching

the first and foremost websearching tip (at least for firefox
(based browsers)), is to get this added:
mycroft
and
yes, that is a search results output for mycroft, on mycroft.  click on
that top result, and it should offer to add mycroft to your list of
drop-down search engines.

why is this at the top of my list?  because it is the one that will add
ease and expedience to adding (almost) any other more search engines you
may want in the future.
immensely helpful.
[edit] some search engines, on some versions/configurations of
firefox, when visiting their search page, will present an "add" option
to the bottom of the search bar's drop-down list.[/edit]
[edit] also of interest to expedite use of thses here, perhaps you
might want to make use of:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/
[/edit]

now, on with the rest of the show.

here's a shortlist of some foss/privacy search engines you may want to
add.

startpage/ixquick
duckduckgo
yacy
seeks
privatelee
exalead
faroo

you could put those terms into a mycroft search, and you would likely
find some versions you could add. 

a little bit more about some of them though...

duckduckgo
if you've not heard of this yet, one wonders where you have been.  lots
of nice features, particularly the "bangs".

seeks
this is a strong fave of mine.  you can run your own node of it, or find
someone else's node to use.  it is very customiseable and has loads of
advanced features, more than i will go into here.
see here for a list of the more official nodes: 
list
of seeks nodes [edit
https://github.com/beniz/seeks/wiki/List-of-Web-Seeks-nodes ~ pesky
broken redirect~ meh, that link shud work, n let u find a nice node to
use)
you may find many more not listed.  this list may also give you some
ideas about the extent of the customiseability of seeks, from looking at
the features mentioned for each node. 
... that should likely get you interested in starting your own, if
you're so nerdalisciously inclined.  it's not quite drop-in plug-n-play,
given the range of considerations and potential configurations.  i did
have seeks running on a friend's debian-based server (briefly... but
then it stopped working when someone else changed something n i failed
to get it back), so if i can do it, you can do it.
(my fave off-list node went down, so i'm now using seeks.ru, as it has a
reasonably close fit to the features i want, and is quite fast.)

yacy
like seeks, this is another free software project, that you can install
and run yourself.
here's a demo server of it:  demo
yacy
and some info about why that demo is just a demo, n not the whole idea:
about yacy search portal

ixquick/startpage
search
the big name engines without having your ip logged.

privatelee
i dont know much about this one yet, but seems to be a similar deal to
ixquick/startpage

faroo
like privatelee, i dont know much about this one yet, but these words do
inspire confidence and admiration:
"powered by 2.5 million peers
web search // full privacy // no spam"
doesnt seem to do well with my tinfoil hat addons though.  probably
great for those without requestpolicy n the like tho.   i'm guessing.

exalead
idk anything about these guys really, but for some reason its on my list
too.  more variety n choice never hurt. 


and again, remember mycroft.  it may have many more gems, known and
unknown.   try typing in "urban dictionary" or "uncyclopedia" into a
mycroft search.


anyone know any other good search engines?



p.s.
scroogle may be gone, but as i hope this list shows, all hope is not
lost. 

* Digit adds more interesting finds later...

http://www.yandex.com/  yet another
indexer.  it can find things that google won't show you.
gibiru.com "google = nsa censorship. 
gibiru = uncensored anonymous search."
greppy.com grep the web.  "The first
specialized Search Engine for Software Engineers & IT Professionals
..."
blackle.com black google.  afaict,
this is not
privacy/security oriented.  added here anyway
disconnect.me specialized VPN
that lets you search privately.
metagear proxies searches to multiple
search providers.
unbubble environmental, private,
neutral.
searx "metasearch engine, aggregating the
results of other search engines while not storing information about its
users."
qrobe it. private search, merge of google and bing results.
gigablast.com Gigablast is now available as an open source search engine on github.com.  robust, scalable search solution in C/C++ in development and used commercially since 2000.
online-utility grep Grep Online - Searches for Lines Matching a Pattern

[VastOne]

Excellent write up and How To Savant!

I only knew of a few of these and have added several, I appreciate this!

[Digit]

added:
gibiru.com "google = nsa censorship.  gibiru = uncensored anonymous search."

[VastOne]

Google is all evil now?

Is that even up for debate or do we all just throw our hands in and say fuck it?

I do not know which is scarier, to be so naive as to not see it or to be so paranoid as to not be it

[Digit]

just discovered this when wistfully sighing, wishing i could grep the web, so i searched for grep the web, and viola, i seems we can grep the web.  (disclaimer: havnt tried yet, just ran over to this thread all excited just this very moment upon discovery)

http://www.grepyy.com/

[Digit]

methinks i rly rather should have had these three mentioned from the start (presuming they existed when i started this) given their apparent awesomeness.   found them on prism-break.org.

https://disconnect.me/search
https://metager.de/en/
https://unbubble.eu/

[Digit]

added:
searx "metasearch engine, aggregating the results of other search engines while not storing information about its users."

(thnx fr33domlover)

[Snap]

After a fast test It seems to be a great addition to the stash. Nice settings.

My defaults are ixquick/startpage. Anyway this one seems more versatile in terms of categories. Let's see how they compare in a few days of hard work.

Thanks, Digit!

[Digit]

added:

gigablast.com Gigablast is now available as an open source search engine on github.com.  robust, scalable search solution in C/C++ in development and used commercially since 2000.



found via http://loonix.guhnoo.org/# , see the "bing" graphic link in botton left.  ^_^

[VastOne]

Thanks Digit... good to see you again mate, I do hope you are well

[Digit]

online-utility grep Grep Online - Searches for Lines Matching a Pattern
still feeling sore from the demise of grepy, is this too good to be true?