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Show HN: Search Engine Wrapper/Router (search.vale.rocks)

1 points by OuterVale ↗ HN
I built a super lightweight search engine wrapper that allows users to search across websites from a single interface with quality of life additions.

- Lightweight: The project is extremely quick to load and run. It uses only vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

- Custom Default Engine: Users can select the search engine they'd like to use by default.

- Bang Patterns: Users can add special commands (eg, "!g" for Google, "!yt" for YouTube) to their query to quickly switch to a specific search engine or website.

- Snap Patterns: Users can use the same special commands as bangs, substituting '!' for '@', to do a search in their chosen engine that is filtered to a specific site. For example, searching for only GitHub results on DuckDuckGo.

Check it out and let me know what you think! I originally built it just for myself but figured others may see use in it. I'm especially interested in hearing what bang/snap patterns would be useful to add.

I've also found it very handy when using Kagi's Starter Plan, which only permits 300 searches monthly.

Source code: https://github.com/DeclanChidlow/search

6 comments

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njroute22
Like this a lot! Any way to have search results open in a new tab instead of same tab?
OuterVale
Thanks!

I have it set as my default engine in Firefox, so instead of having the search open results in a new tab, I just open a new tab and search in that.

Could you elaborate on what behaviour you'd like to see?

njroute22
On further thought - since I was just trying it out as a standalone tab, and not a default search page, it just felt awkward. However, if I wanted to bookmark it or make it the page that appears when I open a new tab - that would be ideal. Sorry if I unnecessarily inquired too soon.

So what made you create that site? Any plans to monetize it or was it just for fun? Can you mine data from what people are searching or is it fully anonymous?

OuterVale
No stress at all.

I made it for two main reasons. Firstly, I didn't want to burn through my limited Kagi trial searches. Secondly, I wanted to use bangs and snaps with search engines that don't support them.

I built it first and foremost as a tool for myself, and I don't have any explicit plans to monetise it. Donations are always appreciated though.

Privacy-wise, I can't see what you search, as all the site does is run some client-side JavaScript that constructs a simple URL based on your parameters, then directs you there. No back-end server or tracking or whatnot.

njroute22
Cool - thanks for the response. I do have a question though - when you say "I didn't want to burn through my limited Kagi trial searches..." How does using your engine overlay not use up the Kagi searches? I found that I still had to login to Kagi in order for it to work - thus using up my limited (100 searches per month) level. Please explain!
OuterVale
You can see Kagi's details on what counts as a search here: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/faq/faq.html#how-are-searches-cou...

I log into Kagi but usually don't have it as my default engine. I can search with DuckDuckGo or Google and then only jump over to Kagi with a bang when I really need to, which helps preserve my limited searches. While Kagi doesn't count bang searches, which could let me use it as a default, I'm an idiot and will forget/mistype, which causes an accidental usage.

I also found Kagi's snaps very useful, but being able to use them with other engines means I don't have to burn a Kagi search just to use them.