Ungoogled-chromium: Check startpage.com

[probonopd]

Please consider using https://www.startpage.com/ as the default search engine. Its search results are closer to Google while still maintaining privacy.

[Eloston]

I've noticed searx has had issues with getting results from Google these days, so I wouldn't be against changing to a more functional search engine. (However, I don't know the current situation well so please let me know if I'm wrong)

At the very least, we could add Startpage as another option.

[probonopd]

To those who have voted down above: why? Have you tried Startpage and compared its result with the current default search engine?

[lipici]

i didnt voted down but i checked and its not so good :
1) first five results are the same like any browser but the rest are not relevant
2) search its the slowest from all search providers and i get boored until it shows
3) very hard to difference the sites from search results
4) text shown from search results its short

Qwant its better but the same, is slow in showing results and its hard to change from web search to images and videos, who was the smart guy to move it on vertical?

so i use duckduckgo that is showing faster the search results and easy to change search result cattegory

[probonopd]

My issue with duckduckgo is that its search results never seem to be as "good" as Google's

[lipici]

true but its a thing that i can pass by, most of the time we search for a mellody, a movie, a person, some news and it can manage.

[probonopd]

The current default, searx.me, is unusable for me, as I get:

startpage.com is much more reliable for me.

[probonopd]

At the very least, we could add Startpage as another option.

It is there as another option already, I just believe it should be the default.

[Eloston]

@probonopd It's not included by default in a fresh profile.

[theel0ja]

I don't think default search engine should be set (like it's now), but I think Startpage should be added as an option (like Searx + DuckDuckGo)

[emanruse]

Startpage now requires JS. Nothing that tells you MUST use JS can be considered to maintain privacy. Also DuckDuckGo is hosted on Amazon, so their claim of privacy is nonsense.

searx.me

There are also other searx instances:
https://github.com/asciimoo/searx/wiki/Searx-instances

[theel0ja]

Startpage now requires JS.

Wrong. It works just fine with Tor Browser "Safest" setting (disables JS/SVG/etc, to find: click that :shield: icon in the toolbar)

DuckDuckGo requires JavaScript for image search, though.

[emanruse]

Wrong. It works just fine with Tor Browser "Safest" setting (disables JS/SVG/etc, to find: click that :shield: icon in the toolbar)

And the moment you try to search for something that "fine" is turns into a mess with no search results.

Additionally at least 2 requests get blocked by uBO which are blacklisted in EasyPrivacy list. So you can figure how "most private" that search engine is.

[theel0ja]

And the moment you try to search for something that "fine" is turns into a mess with no search results.

It works without problems for me.

[jlj2]

A preferred setting for privacy when using startpage would arguably be to 'Use POST vs GET' in the 'Privacy & Safety settings webpage, but then the obfuscated URL that you could use (see bottom of page) could not be added as a search engine in chromium (nor ungoogled-chromium) under 'Manage search engines' in my experience, as the url does not contain an _%s_ for the search term.
A workable alternative is to launch that search engine's obfuscated URL when required from a bookmark, say, in the bookmarks bar.

[emanruse]

Why bother with startpage.com at all when you have many searx instances (including .onion ones)? If you so insist on seeing results from startpage only, just use the search operator "!startpage" - it will show you that. Similarly you can search "!duckduckgo" etc.

Re. GET/POST:

Well, chromium's requirement about %s seems really restrictive in regards to that. So the best thing (privacy wise and anti-mistake wise) is to use
http://127.0.0.1/%s as the default search engine and have a searx instance bookmarked for easy access. (Yes, I know it will need one additional click, what a nightmare :P)

[theel0ja]

A preferred setting for privacy when using startpage would arguably be to 'Use POST vs GET'

The difference there is that it doesn't save the query to browsing history, which may not be enabled.

Why bother with startpage.com at all when you have many searx instances

They often suck in usability.

https://searx.me/?q=Wikipedia&categories=general&language=en-US returns whole 1 result and an error message

For example https://searx.dnswarden.com/?q=Wikipedia&categories=general&language=en-US seems to be better, though.

Also I think Startpage should be added as option, but not as default (no default at the moment, so user choice)

[jstkdng]

I read somewhere that startpage and google made a deal so that startpage can use google results as long as google gets the ip from the person who is making the request. If that's the case, then I would strongly suggest against it, could be wrong though.

[emanruse]

Why bother with startpage.com at all when you have many searx instances

They often suck in usability.

https://searx.me/?q=...

searx.me is #54 in the instances classification:

https://stats.searx.xyz/

[csagan5]

There's been a similar discussion for Bromite and I have been against adding Searx for a reason which has nothing to do with usability: we need to find who is accountable for the logs and PII, and what is at stake for them to compromise them (e.g. security level they can afford and implement).