Set as default search engine

On Firefox and other Gecko based browsers

  1. Right-click the URL bar and select Add "FSKY Search"
  2. Visit about:preferences#search
  3. Select FSKY Search from the dropdown under "Default Search Engine"

On Chromium and Blink based browsers

  1. Open the three-dot menu → Settings, or visit chrome://settings/searchEngines
  2. Search for default search engine in the settings page
  3. Click the pencil icon on the last entry under "Search engines"
  4. Fill in the popup with the following:
    • Search engine: FSKY Search
    • Shortcut: FSKY Search
    • URL with %s in place of query: https://search.fsky.io/web?s=%s
  5. Click Save, then open the dropdown on the entry and select Make default

Frequently asked questions

What is this?

This is a metasearch engine that gets results from other engines, and strips away all of the tracking parameters and bloat. It is based on the open source project 4get.

The goal

Provide users with a privacy oriented, extremely lightweight, ad-free, free as in freedom (and free beer!) way to search for documents around the internet, with minimal, optional JavaScript code.

Privacy and trust

Data is stored temporarily to get the next page of results. This might include search queries, filters and tokens. These parameters are encrypted using libsodium on the server, for which you are given a decryption key (also known internally as npt token). When you make a request to get the next page, you supply the token, the data is decrypted and the request is fulfilled. This encrypted data is deleted after 15 minutes, or after it's used, whichever comes first.

By default, 4get only needs this temporary request state to function. Instance operators may choose to keep additional logs at the webserver, PHP, or infrastructure level, so you should review the policies published by the operator of the instance you are using.

Your search queries and supplied filters are shared with the scraper you chose, because that is how results are fetched. Beyond that, what is retained or forwarded depends on the operator and the upstream services being queried.

There is no practical way for those upstream services to know who you are from 4get alone, but they can still see the search terms that are sent to them. Avoid sending queries that identify you directly. FSKY Search does not require third-party JavaScript trackers or ads to function.

You just sort of have to take the operator's word for it unless they publish more detail. If you'd rather verify things yourself, the software is open source and can be hosted on your own machines. Just a reminder: if you're the sole user of your instance, it is easier for upstream services to infer that requests belong to you. Privacy improves when more people share the same instance.

Where is this website hosted?

Please head over to the instance browser page, select an instance and click on "IP lookup".

Keyboard shortcuts?

Use / to focus the search box.

When the image viewer is open, you can use the following keybinds:
Up, Down, Left, Right to rotate the image.
CTRL+Up, CTRL+Down, CTRL+Left, CTRL+Right to mirror the image.
Escape to exit the image viewer.

Support this project

Donation and sponsorship links are available on the donate page.

I want to report abuse

If you need to contact the operator of this instance, please use whatever contact channel they have published.

Message to all DMCA enforcers: This instance does not claim ownership of the proxied content it displays. Please direct takedown requests to the hosts serving the original material.

Source code

The source code for the software used by this instance is available from this project's 4get repository.