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Show HN: Flashbang – DuckDuckGo bangs resolved locally with a Service Worker (flashbang-dyr.pages.dev)

19 points by t3ntxcles ↗ HN
I like to use DuckDuckGo-style bangs and snaps, they are fast and efficient shortcuts.

However, neither Kagi nor DuckDuckGo resolves them as quickly as I would like and subjectively Google has better search results than DuckDuckGo.

After trying a few local alternatives eg. unduck, unduckified, I wasn't satisfied, the ones I tried briefly loaded a page before redirecting causing visible page flickering, still took time to resolve the actual redirect and lacked advanced features (address-bar autocomplete). Flashbang avoids that by handling the redirect in a Service Worker, before the browser renders anything. On my machine, the added ove rhead is around 0.14ms.

It has 14,470 bangs, custom shortcuts, address-bar suggestions, and works offline once installed (except for suggestions). No runtime dependencies.

Try it: https://flashbang-dyr.pages.dev Code: https://github.com/ph1losof/flashbang

8 comments

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Sayrus
I always found redirects to be wasteful on mobile connections where latency and packet losses are frequent.

Interestingly Firefox, I get latency that are way worse than Chromium (Median 0.46ms vs 1.2ms, P99 1.3ms vs 1.8ms).

canary-digital
This is a wonderfully elegant use of Service Workers. Intercepting the request at the browser level to do instant local routing instead of waiting for a round-trip to the search provider is one of those 'why didn't I think of that' hacks.

Quick question on the implementation: How are you managing the storage and lookup for the 14,000+ bangs? Are they just bundled as a static JSON in the SW payload, and does that have any noticeable impact on the browser's memory footprint when the Service Worker activates?

sunnybeetroot
Wow this is excellent, I wish bangs were part of the web spec and all browsers supported it client side. It could work like unlock origin and its filter lists so the websites aren’t coupled and instead are dynamic.
khurs
Work on Chrome, and on Firefox.

Doesn't work on Tor browser (security level standard) or Safari with Lockdown enabled.

t3ntxcles
Hi @khurs, I think that it is related how Tor and Safari Lockdown handles SW. If SW usage is blocked this is incompatible with current architecture. I will think what we can do about it and come back to you. Meanwhile open to PR's in helping to resolve it!