Why I Use Uruky, a Private Search Engine

General Project Showcase
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You can see it in the FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions - Uruky , but I’ll also paste the answer here:

For web search, Uruky currently integrates Mojeek, Marginalia, EUSP (Ecosia/Qwant) (only works with French, German, or English), Linkup, Serper, PriEco, and Uruky Site Search (our own small/indie-web focused index).

For image search, Uruky currently integrates Pixabay and Serper.

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22

Hi, it looks nice. The captcha is long but not overly annoying and if it does indeed give access for a few hours that would be very reasonable.

There are however a few quirks/bugs:

  • Incomplete page titles (cut-off)
  • No page titles, just the URL

The first issue is the most annoying.

See example with query “Iran War”

fcd63527-b0d0-4e25-8f4f-fec79db98967
fcd63527-b0d0-4e25-8f4f-fec79db989671080×1894 453 KB

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Hello, I am new to privacy and search engines but I wanted to say I agree with Brn. There should be more positivity towards the developers and different search/privacy tools. Kagi is offering very interesting services and so do many others. I was happy to learn about Uruky because we have another option to pick from. Full privacy can be defined in different ways and not everybody needs full anonymity on the highest level. Different tools are used for different purposes. If we get 1 tool that has it all, aren’t we ending up where we started with one tool ruling us all again (as someone here mentioned)? We need diversity in the tools/search engines. If you need full anonymity just pick a different tool. Uruky and all the other developers are at the forefront of technologies and honestly deserve a praise. And some extra subscriptions. Discussing should also happen as well.

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Thanks for this. I’m happy to try and understand what’s up, there, since this is something I haven’t seen before.

I’d need to know what was your search query (and filters) and provider(s) used, to take a look at the results. There’s a setting to enable a “send feedback” button at the bottom of the results page which prepares an email with a URL that has all these params encoded, if it makes things easier.

Thanks!

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If you’re curious, I published a page about threat models for search and Uruky in Threat models: when Uruky is not enough - Uruky where these things should be clearer. If you see something wrong or missing/unclear, I’d appreciate being told! Thanks.

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@brn

Question: Is there a trial mode for testing beyond just 1 day without paying, and offering help to improve the service? That way I can set up the default engine.

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@DanielM There isn’t (it’s just for two hours), otherwise bots could more easily abuse it (and searches cost us money), but if you send an email to help@uruky.com (no need to share your account number, we don’t need to know it) we’re happy to give you a voucher for a few days.

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Awesome! Would you consider making it trivial to find on front page with e.g.

image

Had to replace Contact here but basically insert it to the middle. I think that would show you’re proud to communicate it to your users and that you care for their privacy :slight_smile:

( https://tryquiet.org/ is my favorite example of how to do it. They put it before they pitched their product. It looks really professional at the top. I get that you might not want to put it there as it’s clear you want the login to stand out. But if more stuff creeps to that header, please consider adding it.)

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Good idea, I’ve replaced it there, like your suggestion. And yeah, the header is intentionally account-only.

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30

@brn

Very well. Here’s a brief analysis:

What I liked:

  • Basic interface, straight to the point. No overwhelming UI resembling sci-fi movies or AAA games, neither professional nor flashy colors.
  • Well-organized menus in settings.
  • Useful FAQ section for those looking for relevant info, but the phrase “Can I pay with cash for 100% anonymity?” is extremely exaggerated—I’d recommend updating it to be more honest. 100% anonymity doesn’t exist.
  • Terms of service and privacy policy are standard, but they hurt the quality and coherence of the service with the following words: “You are solely responsible for your use of the service.”
    For example: If the CEO gets bribed and does shady work behind the scenes, the service is responsible—not the legitimate users (they wouldn’t know what’s hidden unless they detect suspicious activity). A correction is recommended.
  • No AI. That’s a step forward in not being infected by what every other company is doing—it’s something I like and I hope they never integrate it.
  • Available in my language, Spanish. Easy to understand.

What I didn’t like:

  • On the main page there are two things:

The phrase that reads along with its context: “What do people say about Uruky?” → it breaks the quality of the interface. I recommend integrating it into the rest of the menus between “Why Uruky” and “Threat models.”

Where it says “Company, Information,” etc. → merge what’s currently floating around into collapsible submenus. This reduces the amount of scrolling on mobile devices.

  • Making comparisons with other engines significantly lowers the quality of the service, and I’ll explain why: being based in the EU or similar doesn’t automatically make a service high quality. I’m not accusing you of being malicious, but you should let the company’s actions speak for themselves. If you claim: “Search privately and without ads.” → let people find that out based on actions, not words. This is fundamental. If you make comparisons, it feels like I’m watching a “services” war and competition just for being based in the EU at minimum.

What’s missing:

  • In search results, it would be great to integrate the date and time of a link if available. This is fundamental because it helps you know when something happened, what it is (by reading the title), what it’s about (topic info), issues (spotting inconsistencies, duplication, or other basic problems), and quality? (whether it’s worth clicking based on visible info without opening the link).

End. For now.

Observation: I did this with a default test account provided by the website.

There you go, free of charge.

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31

Thank you so much, there’s a lot of valuable information here we’ll certainly incorporate!

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I just used the defaults. Load-up Uruky, pass the captcha and do the search. Originally tested on Brave mobile, confirmed with Firefox desktop now. Mojeek is being used. Query is https://uruky.com/search?il=en&q=Iran+War

Mojeek does also sometimes cut titles, but not as much and you seem to cut it off more. See syde-by-side comparison

uruky-iran-war-search
uruky-iran-war-search1440×2437 434 KB

mojeek-iran-war-search
mojeek-iran-war-search1326×2226 464 KB

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Wow, thanks for the great details, I’ll test and check tomorrow if there’s something we can tweak in the API calls.