Alternative Search Engines

[BradKML]

This happened when I let it use the default web search (not Exa)

● Web Search("[redacted] tutorial")
  ⎿  Did 0 searches in 4s

Maybe there needs to be more options for web search, like Brave, DuckDuckGo, StartPage, MetaGer, SwissCow, or public SearX/SearXNG instances? Ideally they don't require API keys to function. (RIP Whoogle)

[WitMiao]

Okay, I'll add some other search MCP options for users to choose from later.

With exa, it's easy to get a $30 credit—$10 is given upon registration, and $20 is awarded after completing beginner tasks. Once used up, you can switch to another account and continue.
By the way, it took me three months to spend just $7🤣

[BradKML]

It all goes under the "don't track/spam me bro" banner. Can't be bothered signing up if there are "deep research" tool that can get similar level of quality (I can't stand Perplexity and how they screw up queries).

[BradKML]

Some of these tools will need to be turned into an MCP sooner or later

• https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Perplexica
• https://github.com/miurla/morphic
• https://github.com/InternLM/MindSearch
• https://github.com/rashadphz/farfalle
• https://github.com/ammaarreshi/Gemini-Search
• https://github.com/memfreeme/memfree
• https://github.com/michaelthwan/searchGPT

If you want to promote Exa, then this would be top of the list https://github.com/zaidmukaddam/scira

P.S. what is with Tavily and Linkup? Those are also what OpenHands support! https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense https://github.com/AnotiaWang/deep-research-web-ui

P.S. Also what is with Serper!?

• https://github.com/dzhng/deep-research
• https://github.com/Nutlope/turboseek
• https://github.com/YassKhazzan/openperplex_backend_os
• https://github.com/jolovicdev/shandu

[BradKML]

Still kind of a mind-blow that web search agents need prompting in annoying ways, like how they are not explorative thinkers, can't handle few-shot prompts, and won't do multi-part reasoning tasks. This explains why having multiple models or good, and why multi-agent system is more likely to scale in effectiveness. https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/prompt-guide

[WitMiao]

This is a great suggestion. I'm currently researching subagents, and we could add a dedicated agent for searching.

[WitMiao]

2.12.9 added open-websearch mcp
https://github.com/UfoMiao/zcf#-open-web-search-v2129-new-feature

[BradKML]

Good defaults, will need to keep an eye on alternatives for Ecosia, Qwant, Startpage, Mojeek, SwissCow, Whoogle, and (self-host option) SearXNG. They might have bigger coverage for niche searches, but we never know.

https://libretechtips.gitlab.io/detailed-tests-of-search-engines-google-startpage-bing-duckduckgo-metager-ecosia-swisscows-searx-qwant-yandex-and-mojeek/
According to this 2020 article including instant answers: SearX > Google >> DDG > Bing ~ StartPage > everyone else
Only search results: Searx > Google >> DDG and StartPage > everyone else

For SearX https://github.com/ihor-sokoliuk/mcp-searxng https://github.com/SecretiveShell/MCP-searxng https://github.com/jae-jae/searxng-mul-mcp
As for StartPage... this is interesting! GitHub/GitLab AND academic search!? https://github.com/flyanima/open-search-mcp

Addendum: according the following 2022 blogpost, Searx (still the best) > Mojeek, Qwant, Brave, MetaGer (basically the sites LibreTechTips graded badly) > Google, DDG, and Yandex (the usual players)
https://greycoder.com/a-survey-of-important-search-engines-in-2022/

[BradKML]

I think I have a clue why SearX is so good... they anonymize Google traffic, and then supplement with DDG and StartPage when big companies want to "memory-hole" niche items to save on server costs (hmm maybe this can be decentralized further but that is another project) https://docs.searxng.org/user/configured_engines.html#configured-engines

We also need source coverage checks not just uptime checks https://searx.space https://uptime.searxng.org

[BradKML]

In case people want a faster alternative https://github.com/neon-mmd/websurfx https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/134wm9k/websurfx_vs_searx_vs_searxng_comparison_of_the/

[TomLucidor]

Is Search based on this? (default is Bing > Brave > DuckDuckGo) https://github.com/mrkrsl/web-search-mcp
Also rare finds for MCPs to include self-host scraper options https://github.com/yokingma/one-search-mcp/blob/main/deploy/README.md

Addendum https://github.com/vishalkg/web-search?tab=readme-ov-file#-features