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Feature request: Query multiple scrapers at once #74

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opened 2025-05-03 12:59:47 +00:00 by emorydeer3 · 3 comments
emorydeer3 commented 2025-05-03 12:59:47 +00:00
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Searx sucks ass but this is one of their nicer features I have yet to see in a search engine that doesn't suck, it would be nice to have it in 4get

I tried implementing that myself but I suck at PHP and also your codebase is kinda messy

Searx sucks ass but this is one of their nicer features I have yet to see in a search engine that doesn't suck, it would be nice to have it in 4get I tried implementing that myself but I suck at PHP and also your codebase is kinda messy
lolcat commented 2025-05-03 13:56:27 +00:00
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Querying multiple engines not only make the search results worse: it uses up resources needlessly. Scrapers have conflicting filters. Not all search engines support searching a specific date-range, for example.

In most, if not all cases, you want to use a specific search engine for different types of queries nowadays. Searching up the name of a movie on Yandex VS DuckDuckGo serves 2 different purposes and it's pretty clear why. Searching the name of a paper on Google VS Bing can mean the difference between getting SEO spam back VS actual results.

4get is a search tool for RESEARCH. It's not a solution to magically fix the bad search results returned by big tech. Hearch.co is decent, if, for some reason, you really need metasearch, but then again what for?

Querying multiple engines not only make the search results worse: it uses up resources needlessly. Scrapers have conflicting filters. Not all search engines support searching a specific date-range, for example. In most, if not all cases, you want to use a specific search engine for different types of queries nowadays. Searching up the name of a movie on Yandex VS DuckDuckGo serves 2 different purposes and it's pretty clear why. Searching the name of a paper on Google VS Bing can mean the difference between getting SEO spam back VS actual results. 4get is a search **tool** for RESEARCH. It's not a solution to magically fix the bad search results returned by big tech. Hearch.co is decent, if, for some reason, you *really* need metasearch, but then again what for?
emorydeer3 commented 2025-05-05 16:25:50 +00:00
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Metasearch is one way to combat SEO slop and it can give you less biased results.
However, you're right; it does make queries much slower.

Maybe I'll look into writing a Hearch.co scraper.

Metasearch is one way to combat SEO slop and it can give you less biased results. However, you're right; it does make queries much slower. Maybe I'll look into writing a Hearch.co scraper.
lolcat commented 2025-05-05 21:48:51 +00:00
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Metasearch engines can't make the difference between slop and good results

Metasearch engines can't make the difference between slop and good results
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Reference: lolcat/4get#74
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